Outgoing independent Senators David Norris and Shane Ross were re-elected last night to the Seanad on the fifth count with just 116 votes separating them.
Senator Mary Henry is also expected to be re-elected when counting resumes this morning for the Dublin University panel.
Senator Norris topped the poll with 3,493 votes in a turnout which dropped to 36.99 per cent from 42.8 per cent five years ago, even though the Trinity College electorate of graduates increased by some 25 per cent in the intervening years.
It initially seemed that there might be a battle for the third seat between Senator Henry who polled 2,123 first preference votes and Trinity Professor of Criminal Law, Ms Ivana Bacik, who polled 1,591 a difference of 532.
But the difference appears to be sufficient for Senator Henry.
She said last night before the final outcome that "I come from a racing family and a win by a short head or 20 lengths is the same thing".
Prof Bacik was very pleased with her vote which has almost doubled since she ran for the Seanad for the first time five years ago and "hopefully I will win a seat the next time".
She speculated that the result might have been different had the election been run by Trinity college on the current register.
"They ran it on the 2000 register and so 2001 graduates were disenfranchised," she said but "I am a happy camper."
There was a remarkable performance too for first time candidate, Ms Rosaleen McDonagh a disabled Traveller, who polled 733 first preference votes.
Ms McDonagh said she was "overwhelmed" by the vote but at the same time "very sad that people in Co Clare are being evicted".
Ms McDonagh, the first Traveller to receive a post-graduate degree said the election was "never really about me.
"It's about my community and what's going on in the underbelly of middle Ireland."
Her campaign team has called on the Taoiseach to appoint a Traveller or another person from an ethnic minority, when he selects his 11 nominees for the Seanad, in order to make the Seanad "representative" of the entire community.
Senator Norris said that last time around his vote had been "sensational" when he got one third of the total vote.
"I didn't get as much this time but I got 50 per cent of second preferences across the board and that is a vindication of my views down through the years, even when they are controversial."
He said that as long as he had "fire in my belly" he would continue to make his contribution.
Otherwise he would make way for younger candidates such as Prof Bacik and Ms McDonagh, who were remarkable candidates.
Journalist and broadcaster Senator Shane Ross was delighted that both he and Senator Norris were returned.
He believed his improved vote reflected the work he had done in being pro-enterprise, in campaigning against Sellafield and for his contribution in the Seanad debate which effectively sank the Government's opinion poll legislation last year.
This was aimed at preventing opinion polls being conducted during the week of an election.
