Breaking News
Counting underway in Presidential election – with Michael D Higgins on course for landslide victory
Galway Bay fm newsroom – The first votes are being counted in the Presidential election and blasphemy referendum.
The exit polls suggest Michael D Higgins will comfortably win the election, and that blasphemy will be repealed from the Constitution.
It looks like a landslide victory for President Higgins – with two exit polls putting the current President on course to be re-elected with between 56% and 58% of the vote.
Businessman Peter Casey looks as though he will place second – securing 21% support in a surprise turnaround in the last week of polling.
His comments that Travellers should not be given ethnic status angered many, but clearly appealed to a significant amount of the electorate.
Sinn Féin will have to pore over why their campaign failed.
Sinn Fein’s candidate Liadh Ni Riada polled worse than Martin McGuinness in 2011 with the exit poll showing she only secured between 7 and 8 per cent of the vote.
The party has been criticised for being slow to announce their candidate but the party’s health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly is blaming the poor turnout.
Sean Gallagher will finish on between 5.5% and 7% according to the exit polls – far short of the half a million votes he got in 2011.
Pieta House founder Senator Joan Freeman will finish with around 6%, while businessman Gavin Duffy conceded overnight and is likely to get just 2% support.
Mr Duffy says he has no regrets about his decision to run for office.
He has tweeted his congratulations to Michael D Higgins, and wished him all the best for his second term.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
