February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Independent candidate Catherine Murphy took the Kildare seat with a final tally of 12,256 votes, while Fine Gael, defying a local poll that had written it off the previous week, saw candidate Shane McEntee win in Meath, ending with 24,047 votes.
Murphy, a former member of the Labor Party, saw off the challenge of Fianna Fail’s Aine Brady. Fianna Fail’s share of the vote slipped by almost 19 percent.
Anonymous Fianna Fail sources were reported as saying that party workers had not put in enough work in the days running up to the election as they were disgruntled over the removal of McCreevy from his position as minister for finance.
McCreevy was appointed a European Commissioner last year in disputed circumstances. Some observers believe that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern nominated the Kildare politician against his wishes.
Fine Gael heralded the victory of McEntee in Meath as indicative of a resurgence in support for the party. Leader Enda Kenny said the voting pact between Fine Gael and Labor had contributed to the result and that it would gain steam in the run up to the Dail elections in a couple of years’ time.
McEntee saw off the challenge of Fianna Fail’s Shane Cassells, who seemed poised to take the seat following the publication of an opinion poll in the Meath Chronicle that put him well ahead of McEntee. However, Fianna Fail’s share of the vote actually fell by 12.5 percent against an increase of 6.89 percent in Fine Gael’s.
Fine Gael was furious with the Meath Chronicle poll and questioned the methodology used. The newspaper responded at the weekend, saying the low voter turnout (41.46 percent) had meant the poll results had been inaccurate.
Sinn Fein will have taken solace from the result as its Meath candidate Joe Reilly managed to hold onto his core vote. This was despite the recent allegations surrounding IRA involvement in the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney.
Reilly improved slightly on his first preferences from 2002 and his share of the vote was up almost three percentage points from 9.43 percent to 12.25. The Labor party leader Pat Rabbitte, who saw his candidate Dominic Hannigan rebuild the Labor vote in Meath, characterized the Sinn Fein result as a “protest vote.”