Tipperary South: story of the count

Fine Gael are celebrating the election of their first TD in Tipperary since 2011. Michael Murphy was elected on the sixth and final count.

The election’s oldest candidate, Seamus Healy also has reasons to be cheerful after he took the last of three seats in Tipperary South.

The 74-year-old independent former TD fought a tough campaign against 11 other candidates, and regained the Dáil seat he lost in 2020. Of the 11 elections he has contested since 1987, he has lost six and won five.

“I’m a fighter,” he said after his win which makes him one of the oldest TDs to get elected to the Dail. “I don’t give up easily.”

Sinn Fein, on the other hand, will be mourning the departure of their own TD and trying to figure out where they go wrong. Martin Browne had become the first TD for the party in over a century to be elected to the Dáil from Tipperary in 2020 off the back of a surge in support for the party.

Clearly not happy with how their TD had fared by the closing stages of the count, Sinn Féin requested a partial check of votes for him and for his nearest rival, newly-elected Deputy Healy.

It provided one of the only moments of real drama during the count, where independent Mattie McGrath topped the poll and was elected first.

They made the call after the redistribution of votes after count four, which left Mr Browne with the lowest number of votes out of the four remaining candidates. There were just 79 votes between himself and Mr Healy but Mr Browne eventually conceded and the seat went eventually to Deputy Healy.