FIANNA FÁIL CANDIDATE and former TV presenter Gráinne Seoige has not fared well in her first election, according to a final tally in Galway West where she garnered just 5.1% of the vote. 

One of the so-called ‘celebrity candidates’ – a term Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said he does not like – Seoige announced her intention to run for one of the constituency’s five Dáil seats in August this year. 

With Seoige out of contention, Fianna Fáil now have to pin their hopes on her party colleague John Connolly, whom the final tally had on 12% behind Sinn Féin’s Mairead Farrell (13.2%). 

The Galway West race is tight at the top, independent TD Noel Grealish on 11.5%, independent TD Catherine Connolly on 11% Fine Gael’s Hildegarde Naughton on 10.1% and Independent Ireland’s Noel Thomas on 9.9%.  

Micheál Martin has said Seoige is “a substantive person” who “ran a very spirited campaign”. 

He also said she had “very big shoes to fill” after the retirement of Fianna Fáil’s Éamon Ó Cuív. 

Martin added that the party was happy “on one level” because John Connolly is in the running for a seat. 

Independent Catherine Connolly, who is on course to be re-elected, responded to the poor performance of Seoige this evening, telling Virgin Media the decision to run her was “daft”.  

Connolly called the decision “an insult to people on the ground” and said she would leave it to Fianna Fáil to do “their own post-mortem”.

Mairead Farrell (SF), John Connolly (FF), Catherine Connolly, and Noel Grealish (IND) are on course to take the first four seats in the five-seater.