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LAST UPDATE | 12 Jun 2024
SINN FÉIN COULD be in with a chance of holding on to a seat in the European Parliament for the Midlands-North-West constituency, according to incumbent MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan.
The party’s seat in the constituency is currently held by Chris MacManus, who was co-opted into the seat in 2020 following Matt Carthy’s successful Dáil bid.
However, MacManus is well out of the running and yesterday told reporters that his lack of European Election campaigning experience contributed to his poor showing.
Meanwhile, Flanagan, Fine Gael’s Maria Walsh and Nina Carberry, and Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen all look comfortable and Matt Carthy told reporters on Sunday that these four are all but guaranteed seats.
Outside of this top four, former RTÉ correspondent Ciaran Mullooly has a lead of around 12,000 on the next nearest competitor, Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew.
Flanagan, who seems assured to hold onto his seat, told reporters that he thinks Gildernew is in with a chance of being elected.
That’s despite Gildernew telling reporters that she was “resigned” to not winning a seat and that she was “not overly optimistic” that she could overtake the 12,000 vote lead of former RTÉ correspondent Ciaran Mullooly.
SF's Michelle Gildernew says she is “resigned” to not winning an MEP seat but calls it a "setback, not a tragedy".
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) June 11, 2024
Referencing the loss of her nephew Fiachra Ó Faoláin, Gildernew says: “This is a setback but it is definitely not a tragedy; I know what that feels like this week." pic.twitter.com/brcnQcNNfg
But her party colleague Pearse Doherty then disputed this and claimed Sinn Féin was “not out of the race here yet” and remarked that there is “no read as to where transfers are going”.
However, Flanagan told reporters that he does in fact have a read on where transfers are going.
He’s been camped out at the TF Royal Theatre in Castlebar, Co Mayo since Sunday, and has often been seen with his head down, crunching the numbers.
He took a break from calculations last night to report that he’s taken a sample of around 1,000 ballots from the majority of the 27 candidates who stood in the election.
Taking to X, he later outlined his sums and said Gildernew “could be two thousand votes ahead of Mullooly with only Lisa Chambers’ votes left to distribute”.
I've been looking at the tallies I've done on various candidates second preferences. If they're correct then Gildernew could be two thousand votes ahead of Mullooly with only Chambers votes left to distribute. No tallies done Chambers second preferences. All to play for yet.…
— Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (@lukeming) June 11, 2024
In a later post on X, Flanagan added: “Hold your horses. Far from decided.”
Counting has continued until around 1am since Sunday night, and while there was previously optimism that a result could come today, that now seems increasingly unlikely.
And while a result could come tomorrow, candidates have said it may be Friday before the result is confirmed.
However, it could extend even further, with Flanagan saying as far back as Sunday afternoon that there could be a recount.
That would be bad news for fans of Tina Turner, as a Tina Turner tribute act is playing a sold out show in the count centre on Saturday night.
While some have been criticising the lenght of time taken so far to carry out the count, Flanagan has been taking it all in his stride.
In a further post on X, he hit out at people describing the count as an “arduous process”.
“How is it arduous?” asked Flanagan.
“It’s the ultimate display of how the democratic process works,” he answered.
“I love it. May it never change.”
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This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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A pity he doesn’t sort out the chaotic mess that’s CUH in his own backyard, instead of traveling to northern Ireland
@K O: As Minister of Foreign Affairs travel such as this is a requirement of the job. There may be things to whine about in relation to Micheal Martin but complaining that he is doing his job is a new one.
Cant make it up, these lads continually slate sinn fein.
Yet they are happy to sit with them concerning the north. You can’t have stormont restoration
Without them. Bet he doesnt shout down michelle when others are watching. It’s all hand shakes and smiles.
Yet people believe his rhetoric.
@Colette Byrne: It is valid to differ with SF regarding its iffy economic policies while working alongside it towards a peaceful united Ireland.
@Colette Byrne: SF are Nationalists much like UKIP and so on. I go with Einstein’s opinion on Nationalists.
Hope they don’t use the bike shed contractors for this 1….
@Padraig Devaney: what about the electrion voting machine’s?
Between purchase and storage cost the taxpayer €54 million,then they were sold for NINE EUROS PER UNIT .
He an international high flyer, opinions on everything and no solution.
FF has made persistent effort and input into stable relationships with all who live on the island of Ireland.
@thomas molloy: FF the party of great relationships for sure, literally jumped into bed with bankers and developers and took this country to the brink in 2006 and then denied we ever bailed out said banks?
@thomas molloy: Let’s hope that we will have intelligent comment and discussion on the matter at hand rather than immature electioneering bl bl bla
@thomas molloy: you’re joking Right ?
@jak: The minute you mention your rear end Martin you are losing the argument.
@jak: It’s what you are talking through.
@Tom Newell:
Shin Fein voted on that night with the goverkment to Bale out the Bankers
Only Labour vote no to the Bale out.
“With the return of the institutions in Northern Ireland, and a renewed commitment to partnership from the British government, this is hugely important occasion to reflect on how far we have come and to drive forward the important work ahead.”
How can this important work be turned into petty electioneering bitchingg by anyone.
@thomas molloy: Can’t the so called “opposition PR departments” not see that petty electioneering is loosing the votes big time.
@thomas molloy: Will he mention, you know, the thing that he and his party dare not mention? Because we’ve had over 100 years of FF and FG saying it’s not the right time? Because we don’t want to upset the unionists? It’s time we created a new Ireland for everyone.
@Anthony Curran: The crux of the matter is that ‘we’ means different things to different people. Your concept of ‘we’ may not be the same as someone else’s.
@thomas molloy: how can you support a man who stood over one of the biggest scandals in this country, organ retention.
They stole from man, woman, and child. He stands in the dail, shouting and making slurs at sinn fein constantly, and other members of his party.
Yet you are saying what a great leader he is. Mary lou is the leader of the very party he is now going to pick the boots of.
Twofaced comes to mind.
No, he is not electionteering at all.
@Colette Byrne: lick
@Colette Byrne: How can you promote a party that is the political wing of an organisation that within living memory blew men, women and children to smithereens. I suppose that is excusable because it was all for the “cause”.
@Vincent Alexander: Did your parents or grandparents vote for the civil war parties of FF and FG, parties who murdered men, women and children?
@thomas molloy: That ship sailed a while ago!
@Vincent Alexander: The British government shot innocent people on the streets (bloody Sunday), and colluded with killers to murder people suspected of crimes. Are you suggesting that nobody talks to the British government?
@Anthony Curran:
See good Friday agreement for details.
@H Woo: Is that what your bot manual says?
A shyster who couldn’t tell the truth, even if his life depended on it!
He will yeah
@Brian Hunt. I presume you are referring to the Tainiste. I worked with Hillary in the UK and found him to be basically sound!
@Padraig O’Brien: No, I meant Mehole. Don’t know much about Hillary, but his father Tony Benn was much in the news. Didn’t like his politics much but he came across as a man of decency and integrity!
@Brian Hunt:
The great socialist who used expert financel advice to minimise inheritance taxes on the transfer of his wealth to his children.
@H Woo: That’s not a hanging offence, you’d probably do the same for your children!
have your say