As election count ticks on, the numbers are coming thick and fast. Here’s eight things to watch from night into morning.
1) The nicknames nicking in
It was a good day for candidates whose nicknames appeared on the ballot paper.
Fianna Fáil’s Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher is set to make his return to the Dáil after losing his seat in 2020 as is Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, who looks set to land a knockout blow in the Longford-Westmeath constituency.
First-time general election candidate Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere is also on course to pick up a seat for Fianna Fáil in Carlow-Kilkenny. The former Kilkenny hurling panelist and Leinster title-winning county camogie manager was first elected as a county councillor back in 2014.
No such luck for Cllr Michael ‘Chicken’ Brennan in Tipperary South however, with the Labour candidate well down the pecking order according to tallies.
2) Mick and Clare won’t get there
After losing their seats at the European elections in June, Clare Daly and Mick Wallace had hoped to return to the domestic parliamentary scene but neither had a successful day at the polls.
Both have been a big part of Irish political life since they were first elected to the Dáil in 2011, but they will be on the outside looking in when the Dáil resumes. They can perhaps take solace in some emerging comebacks this year, not least the aforementioned Boxer and Pat The Cope.
In other comeback attempts, former Fine Gaelers Kate O’Connell and Alan Shatter both ran in as Independents in Dublin Bay South and Dublin Rathdown, but their reboots failed to materialise.
3) Cummins coming up but Fitzpatrick has no such luck
Fine Gael’s John Cummins will be elected at the second time of asking in Waterford with the city’s former mayor securing over 10,000 first preference votes, more than double his tally from four years ago.
It’ll be a proud day for the Cummins family who can celebrate a seat in the Dáil at the fourth time of asking. John’s father Maurice, a former Fine Gael senator, was unsuccessful in his two general election bids.
However the wait goes on for Mary Fitzpatrick.
The Fianna Fáil candidate for Dublin Central looks unlikely to get elected at the fifth time of asking, despite being joined on the campaign trail by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Another long-time candidate who has failed to pick up a seat is former Wicklow hurler Charlie Keddy. Mr Keddy has unsuccessfully contested every local and general election since 1985.
4) War on the Cork Eastern front
A major battle for seats is heating up in the four-seater Cork East constituency, where no candidate reached the quota of 9,602 after the first count.
Sinn Féin’s Pat Buckley topped the poll with 5,901 first preferences but less than a thousand votes separate him from Fianna Fáil’s Deirdre O’Brien, who sits in fifth place.
With two candidates from both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael still in contention, transfers will play a big part in the final result, and it is feasible that any of the top eight could take a seat.
This one will go right to the bitter end.
5) Fine Gael party faithful?
Seventeen Fine Gael TDs retired before this election, leaving their seats up for grabs. But did voters stay loyal to the party?
Outgoing TD Damien English held a seat in Meath West from 2007 to 2024, but the party failed to retain his seat this time round. Meath West was the first constituency to finish counting, with Fianna Fáil’s Aisling Dempsey winning here on the fifth and final count, following seats won by Sinn Féin’s Johnny Guirke and Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín.
In was a similar story in Wexford where former Fine Gael chief whip Paul Kehoe stood down, following 20 years in frontline politics.
Two candidates ran in his stead but neither look likely to win his seat.
In Laois meanwhile, first-time candidate Willie Aird of Fine Gael was elected, following the retirement of long-serving TD Charlie Flanagan.
6) No reason for alarm in Donegal
The long-awaited first count in Donegal was stymied mid-delivery when a fire alarm interrupted the returning officer just as she brought the numbers to the patient people of the north-west.
Among those most-interested to hear the specifics were the Sinn Féiners there to support Pearse Doherty. On the line on RTÉ television as it all happened was Mr Doherty’s good friend, Matt Carthy.
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Thankfully, after few moments of delay, the returning officer could – ahem – return, and resume the announcement. It saw Mr Doherty re-elected and once again vie for the title of…
7) King of the polls
It looks like Mr Doherty is likely to hold on to his crown, which he took as the male candidate to win the highest number of first preference votes in 2020.
Then, he took 21,044. This year he got a slightly lower, 18,898. Queen of the polls in 2020, Denise Mitchell pipped him to the overall title, bring home 21,344 preference, but her vote is down significantly this year.
Mr Doherty had a short but nervous wait after the Donegal announcement for the first count in Kerry, where the main contender for his title – Michael Healy Rae – came up just short, taking some 18,596 first preferences.
8) Former high-flyers are grounded
On the other end of the scale sit two of Pearse Doherty’s former parliamentary colleagues.
During the Sinn Féin surge of 2020, Violet-Anne Wynne topped the poll in Clare with a surprising 8,987 first preferences. Ms Wynne resigned from the party in 2022, saying she had been “isolated” and subjected to “psychological warfare.”
In a statement after her resignation, Sinn Féin acknowledged “challenges” and “issues” at constituency level.
Running as an independent this time, she secured just 310 first preference votes.
Patricia Ryan – like Ms Wynne – was a Sinn Féin poll topper in 2020, securing more than 10,000 first preference votes in Kildare South.
Ms Ryan resigned from the party just last month citing “difficulties” she was experiencing within the party locally.
She won’t be returning to the Dáil, after accruing just 703 first preferences.
