Independent election hopeful Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon has lost her European Parliament seat and joined Dr Jim McDaid in being eliminated from the North West constituency today.
And this evening Fine Gael claimed its fourth European seat when Mr Jim Higgins secured the third and final seat in the North West , holding off a very strong challenge from Mr Pearce Doherty of Sinn Féin.
Sitting MEP Ms Scallon lost her seat on the third count. Fianna Fáil's Mr Seán Ó Neachtain topped the poll followed by Independent, Ms Marian Harkin.
Fine Gael is still chasing a fifth seat, with sitting MEP Ms Avril Doyle currently 10,000 votes ahead of Labour's Mr Peter Cassells in the East. Earlier in the East, Fine Gael's Ms Mairéad McGuinness topped the poll while Fianna Fáil's Mr Liam Aylward looks certain to be elected.
Earlier today Fianna Fáil's Mr Gerard Collins bowed out of politics after independent disability-rights campaigner Ms Kathy Sinnott took the third European seat in the South.
In taking the final seat in the South Ms Sinnott joins Fianna Fáil's Mr Brian Crowley MEP and Fine Gael's Mr Simon Coveney who have been elected to the European Parliament.
Mr Collins said he didn't think he would put himself forward for election again, instead preferring to "go to his garden like Cicero" and contemplate writing his political memoirs.
Sinn Féin's Ms Mary Lou McDonald won the fourth and last seat in the Dublin constituency to became the party's first MEP.
Ms McDonald won her seat in the constituency along with Fine Gael's Mr Gay Mitchell, Fianna Fáil's Mr Eoin Ryan and Labour's Mr Proinsias de Rossa.
"Instinctively, people are republican," Sinn Féin President Mr Gerry Adams said by way of explaining his party's stunning performance, which was mirrored in local elections. "They want to see an end to British rule, want to see a united Ireland, want to see peace between orange and green."
The party has doubled its share of the vote in the Republic from the last European vote in 1999, when it polled 6.3 per cent. Ms McDonald took around a 14.5 per cent share of the Dublin vote.
And in the North the DUP's Mr Jim Allister and Sinn Féin's Ms Bairbre de Brún have been comfortably elected to the European Parliament following on the first count
After a second count Jim Nicholson of the UUP edged out the SDLP's Martin Morgan to take the seat vacated by former SDLP leader Mr John Hume.