The age of electronic elections suffered an unexpected setback in Mayo today when Fianna Fáil’s computer containing election tallies at the count centre in Castlebar was damaged by what was described as an "exploding beer barrel".
It is unlikely that the damage was caused by party supporters celebrating victory in the five-seater constituency as outgoing TD Ms Beverley Cooper Flynn is fighting to hold on to her seat.
Fine Gael’s Mr Michael Ring and Fianna Fáil’s Dr Tom Moffat look set to hold their seats but the big news in Mayo has been the performance of independent candidate Dr Jerry Cowley who is on course to win a seat.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are expected to share the two remaining seats which means at least one outgoing TD from Ms Cooper-Flynn, Fine Gael’s Mr Enda Kenny and Mr Jim Higgins will lose out.
As a result of the deluge, Fianna Fáil tallymen have been forced to return to the tried and tested method of manual calculation until a new keyboard can be found, ireland.comhas learned.