Reaction: Nationalists: "We can hold our heads high," said Mr Martin Morgan. Having conceded that the SDLP would not be represented in the European Parliament, the first time this has happened since direct elections were held in 1979, the former Belfast lord mayor pledged that his party would go on the offensive to regain the ground ceded to Sinn Féin.
"We have to roll up our sleeves and go out to every house, every farm and work," he said.
"We take it street by street and road by road. It's all about renewal. When this campaign began I bought a new pair of shoes. They're in the bin, worn out. That is what we need to be doing - going out into communities and working hard for that vote." He said Sinn Féin took 20 years to outpoll the SDLP and that it would take longer than six months to undo the damage suffered at last November's Assembly elections.
" I know the way out of this," he said. "The way out is to ensure that at council level, at Assembly level, at MP level that sleeves get rolled up and feet go on the streets - not to look for votes in the first instance, but to build our relationships with the people of Northern Ireland. It's about redeveloping that sense of trust. You can't deal at a distance with the people."
He added: "I'll tell you - we will not surrender." The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, said he would spurn DUP offers to form what that party calls a "voluntary coalition" with Sinn Féin outside any new executive. "That is a euphemism for exclusion," he said.
Mr Durkan pledged himself to restructuring his party and how it does business, adding that a special conference would be held later this year to that end. "All that work is in hand, all that work in being undertaken and will give us the ground for reconsolidating the SDLP." He turned to next year's council elections and anticipated Westminster poll and said the preparations already underway would better position the SDLP "both organisationally and structurally" to meet those challenges.
Ms Bairbre de Brún, returning to the theme of the Sinn Féin election campaign, said: "We have to move forward to ensure that we do as we said we would and that we promote the peace process, that we work to an all-Ireland agenda and that we work for equality and an Ireland of equals and a Europe of equals."
"We must also, given our place now within the European Parliament, make those institutions a little more real for people here so they can make their voices heard and so they can feel part and parcel of the decision-making. We will go from here to ensure that the Good Friday agreement is implemented in full and that people have a brighter future." Mr Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president, referred to the DUP total and its position at the top of the poll.
"We were witness to the DUP victory," he said. "We acknowledge and we respect their mandate. We ask them to respect our mandate." He was also magnanimous concerning Mr Martin Morgan, describing him as a "good candidate" and one who did "a good job for the party".
But he added: "However, John Hume's shoes are large enough to fill." He referred to Sinn Féin's growing electoral strength and said his party would use that strength to help set the political agenda and initiate political change.