Fianna Fáil followed the script by easily taking the first two seats in Cork East, although the order reversed expectations, with Michael Ahern topping the poll and taking the first seat on the third count.
His surplus distribution gave Ned O'Keeffe the final 300 votes he needed to retain the seat he has held since 1982.
A remarkable feature of the count was the manner in which Fine Gael's Paul Bradford narrowly lost out in almost identical circumstances to those he endured in 2002.
On that occasion Bradford was in third place after the first count but was overtaken by his party colleague David Stanton and Labour's Seán Sherlock, with Stanton taking a seat. Bradford lost out then by just 207 votes.
After the first count on Friday, he was again in third place, this time with a personal-best first-preference performance of 8,916; Stanton had 7,686 votes and Sherlock 7,295.
For geographic reasons, Fine Gael knew that Bradford needed a comfortable cushion to be in with a chance of regaining the seat he lost so in such dramatic circumstances last time.
The first eliminations saw transfers from four candidates, all on the Stanton side of the constituency and the Sherlock side of the political divide.
Labour candidate John Mulvilhill was the last to be eliminated and his votes, predictably, ensured that Stanton and Sherlock both leapfrogged Bradford.
All that was left, at that stage, was O'Keeffe's modest surplus of 271.
Had he got every one of them, Bradford would have beaten Sherlock by one vote. In the end, he lost out by 199 votes.
Overall change: No change
Outgoing TDs
Ned O'Keeffe FF
Michael Ahern FF
David Stanton FG
Joe Sherlock Lab