THE status quo was also maintained in Cork North West – with Fianna Fail winning two seats and Fine Gael one.
Only this time there is a new TD, with the election of Cllr John Paul O’Shea.
After the two unrelated Moynihans were returned for Fianna Fáil – Michael and Aindrias – O’Shea took the seat created by the retirement of FG’s Michael Creed.
The success of first-time candidate Sinn Féin’s Nicole Ryan, who secured 5,452 first preference votes, was the talk of the count centre in Mallow.
In Cork South Central, Passage West native Cllr Seamus McGrath took the seat vacated by his brother Michael, now an EU Commissioner.
There were several heavy hitters in the five-seater constituency (up from four in 2020) which included party leader Micheál Martin, who topped the poll with 14,526 first preferences.
The remaining four seats went to McGrath (FF), followed by Sinn Féin’s Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, Jerry Buttimer for FG and the surprise election of Social Democrats’ Padraig Rice.
