DUN LAOGHAIRE- RATHDOWN:THE GREEN Party in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was wiped out following Friday's local elections when the party's four sitting councillors lost their seats.
Fine Gael improved its position by one and Labour took two extra seats, but it was the People Before Profit Alliance which really shook up the 28-seat council. All four of the council’s Green Party councillors lost their seats in Ballybrack, Blackrock, Dundrum and Dún Laoghaire.
Fianna Fáil managed to hold on to four seats after bruising battles in Dún Laoghaire, Stillorgan, Dundrum and Glencullen. None of the party’s councillors had an easy election and when Cormac Devlin finally secured his seat in the Dún Laoghaire ward, the relief was palpable.
Labour secured eight seats, four women and four men, in what was a conscious effort at gender balance, and stalwart Jane Dillon Byrne again secured her seat in Dún Laoghaire after 35 years in continuous local service.
Success for the People Before Profit Alliance, which took two seats, one in Dún Laoghaire and one in Ballybrack, could augur well for party headliner Richard Boyd Barrett when the general election comes around.
He topped the poll in Dún Laoghaire, pulling in 4,091 first preferences with a quota of 2,563, and might have pulled in a second candidate had they fielded one on time. Party colleague Hugh Lewis was elected on the third count in Ballybrack.
Fine Gael’s 11 seats, an improvement of one, somewhat masked a disappointing performance by Louise Cosgrave, who was effectively replaced by party colleague Barry Saul. She and Tom O’Higgins, were the only sitting Fine Gael councillors to lose their seats.
