SF’s history maker breaks another mould

You could be tempted to recall that the tension was so rife it managed to cut the power in the Roscommon-Galway constituency in the early hours of a freezing Monday morning.

But if the truth be told, from the very earlier tallies the writing was on the wall for the two big parties in the newly redrawn constituency, which threw up a number of historic milestones in Election 2020.

Sinn Féin’s Claire Kerrane fought off outgoing Fianna Fáil TD and former radio broadcaster Eugene Murphy for the third seat without reaching the quota on the sixth count – the first time in a century that the party took a seat here, a constituency which had the first ever Sinn Féin elected politician.

Her victory – celebrated to the strains of ‘A Nation Once Again’ – in just her second run at politics leaves the constituency one of only two in the country without a Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil TD. The result ensures that its reputation as being fierce contrarian remains unblemished – ever since the foundation of the State it has never returned sitting politicians.

Way back in 1917 George Noble Plunkett won a by-election in North Roscommon for Sinn Féin as an MP, the first time the party – then known as Republican – won a seat in Westminster. He later took a seat in the Dáil in the 1921 general election.

Kerrane, a 27-year-old from Castlerea who became a political advisor in Sinn Féin headquarters after polling 3,000 first preferences in the 2016 poll, will be only the second woman ever to win a seat in Roscommon, following in the footsteps of Joan Burke who served for 17 years until her retirement in 1981.

The daughter of a school principal and a beef farmer, her close association with the leadership should lead to a high-profile position in the next government, which will likely be some weeks off as the horse-trading begins in earnest. During a short interview with the Connacht Tribune at the count centre, she name-checked leader Mary Lou O’Donnell no less than three times.

Poll topper Michael Fitzmaurice was the first Independent candidate to be elected in the country after increasing his vote by a third to pull in over 13,000 first preferences.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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