FINBARR Harrington’s success in being elected as an Independent councillor in the Bantry electoral area was years in the making.
Lots of councillors, even TDs, have had a miss or two before being elected but no one – ever – lost out like Finbarr did in 2019 when Holly Cairns took the fourth and final seat by a single vote.
On the second day of what should have been the final day of counting, he had been one vote ahead. There was, of course, a recount, and under the watchful eye of returning officer Maurice Manning, the entire count was decamped to County Hall, where Holly emerged, two days later, victorious by a single vote.
Everyone remembers it, and remembers Finbarr. He is known, too, for his community activism, particularly his work as a member of the West Cork Local Community Development committees, Leader Local Action Group, and as a member of the Island Interagency Group.
Finbarr Harrington celebrates his election to the constituency of Bantry- West Cork LEA at the count centre in Clonakilty. (Photo: Martin Walsh)
What the pundits did not predict was that in a crowded constituency that has just four seats, his first preference vote would jump from 1,225 in 2014, and from 1,101 in 2019, to 1,870 – a number that placed him second only to the poll-topper Danny Collins, at 2,386.
The 49-year-old farmer and ground worker said the canvassing campaign was ‘a massive effort’ by him and a team of supporters because Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil traditionally had a stronghold on this electoral area.
Two party leaders supporting their candidates – Holly Cairns of the Social Democrats backing Chris Heinhold, and Michael Collins of Independent Ireland backing his brother Danny – only added to the pressure, especially as both were incumbents.
‘Geographically, the Bantry electoral area is huge and I was at a little disadvantage in that I live out on the periphery, out on the edge of the beautiful Beara peninsula in Allihies,’ said Finbarr.
The newly-elected independent councillor picked up transfers in each of the counts but it was in the fifth count when Chris Heinhold (SD) – who got an impressive first preference vote of 994 and steadily climbed to 1,288 votes despite having only been co-opted to the Council in January – was eliminated.
It was Chris’s 187 transfers that helped Finbarr to pull further ahead of another Beara candidate and former Fianna Fáil councillor, Danny Crowley.
Danny Crowley was eliminated in the sixth round, and the distribution of his very respectable 1,411 votes saw 410 going to Finbarr. This brought him over the quota of 2,460, and he was deemed elected on the seventh count.
