Another Aura knockout as Catherine Connolly floors the field in Donegal

President-elect Catherine Connolly topped the poll in the Donegal constituency by a sizeable margin.

Galway West TD Connolly was officially declared as the 10th President of Ireland on Saturday evening after taking 63pc of the vote - and was helped on her way by a significant backing from the Donegal constituency.

Connolly claimed 75pc of the vote, taking 33,286 votes with Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys on 9,316 votes (21pc). Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin, who exited the race but whose name stayed on the ballot paper, got 1,774 votes (4pc) in the Donegal constituency.

There was little only echo in the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny, the count centre for the Donegal constituency, when the totted sums were announced at around 5pm on Saturday.

It seemed a long time since the day began …

The Sinn Féin politicians, strategists and tally people formed a queue at the door from well before they were thrown open for the start of the count at 9am. Their number included Bloody Sunday campaigner Tony Doherty from Derry, whose father Patrick was killed on Bloody Sunday.

Sinn Féin threw its considerable weight and influence behind the Connolly campaign, a move famously branded as a “game changer” by party leader Mary Lou McDonald. Donegal Deputies Pearse Doherty and Padraig Mac Lochlainn, as well as County Councillors, were present at the Aura from early on.

Former Independent TD Thomas Pringle, who acted as Connolly’s campaign manager in Donegal, predicted a 75-80pc vote share for Connolly from early on while Deputy Doherty was predicting a “landslide”.

Save for Fine Gael Senator Manus Boyle, party representatives seemed to be in scant supply.

Count centre veteran Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher turned out to survey the lay of the land and the Fianna Fáil TD said he could see the writing on the wall by 9.30am.

Deputy Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher

Many of the politicians, also including 100% Redress TD Charles Ward, had departed to make their way to Dublin Castle by the time lunchtime arrived such was the inevitability of it all once boxes were opened. 

Speaking of lunch, the absence of the usual vendors was a further pointer that this was as low key an event as could be expected. 

Seven days earlier, the same arena in the Aura played host to the Rumble In The Hills, Rising Stars professional boxing card. There had been some first round stoppages there, but few would have considered throwing in the towel as quickly as the towel came from the blue corner on Saturday.

A buoyant, baying 1,200 crowd had watched the boxing. For Saturday’s election count, only one of the seating tiers was pulled out and rarely were any of its seats used.

The Presidential Election count was not one that whetted the appetites beyond those who needed to be there and the election regulars who had to be there.

It was, perhaps, a neat way for the new County Registrar, James Canny, to have for his first election as the Donegal Constituency’s Returning Officer. 

Count centre staff hard at work

What, then, of the numbers who voted? 

The turnout in Donegal was actually higher than expected with a total poll of 50,810 representing a 39.76pc turnout of voters from an electorate of 127,789. In 2018 the turnout was 34pc and figures this year confirmed that over 10,000 more people actually used their vote than in 2018.

Connolly had a number of key areas in Donegal where there was an avalanche in her favour.

In Cnoc Fola, Connolly took 88pc of the 85 votes that were put in the ballot box. In SN Taoibhoige in Glenfin, her share was at 87pc and in Magheroarty it was up at 85pc.

In Doochary, Rannafast, Glenswilly, Trianach Sean Scoil and the box in Leabgarrow on Arranmore island, Connolly took 84pc of the vote. For example, in Rannafast, that amounted to 181 of 215 votes that were cast.

Connolly also took over 80pc of the votes at several other booths, including Niall Mor in Killybegs and Tory island.

Across five boxes in Cockhill NS in Buncrana, Connolly claimed 854 out of the 1,171 votes, or a 73pc share, while in one of the boxes at St Mary’s NS in Stranorlar Connolly took 142 of the 192 votes.  

In all seven of Donegal’s local electoral areas (LEAs), Connolly polled over 60pc of the vote. Indeed, her percentage was at 70.3 in the Carndonagh LEA, where she took 3,734 votes, and in the Buncrana LEA she had a 69pc share (4,366) with a 68.9pc share (6,014) in the Glenties LEA.

In the Donegal (65pc, 6,542), Milford (64.3pc, 3,234), Letterkenny (62.6pc, 5,479) and Lifford-Stranorlar (61.5pc, 3,122) LEAs, Connolly also swept the boards.

In South Donegal, 16 boxes in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency were also in favour of Connolly, who took 66pc of the vote, a total of 1,969 votes, in those areas with Humphreys on 25pc (752 votes).

The largest share of vote gathering by Humphreys was in the Lifford-Stranorlar area, where she had a 21.3pc share of the vote. The 1,081 votes earned here also included the only three boxes in the county where Humphreys had the largest vote. These were in Carnowen, where she out-polled Connolly 45-41, Drumucklagh-Craigadoes (68-58); and Glenmaquin (59-56).

In 67 of the boxes, the number of spoiled votes was greater than the votes for Humphreys.

The Fine Gael candidate had decent vote percentages in places like Raphoe Central (38pc), Cranford NS, Ray NS and Portleen NS (all 36pc).

Fine Gael had a disastrous 2024 in Donegal with the General Election seeing the party’s vote by 3,602, its vote share plummeting to just 9pc from 14pc in the previous General Election. The party failed to win the seat vacated by former Minister for Education Joe McHugh. 

A spoiled vote pictured at the Aura Leisure Centre

Jim Gavin, who did not want to be on the ballot paper, ended up with 1,901 votes in Donegal, including 127 in the south Donegal boxes in the Sligo-Leitrim Constituency. The former Dublin football manager announced his withdrawal from the race following revelations that he had failed to reimburse a former tenant about €3,300 in overpaid rent dating back more than a decade. As the nomination deadline had passed, there was the somewhat farcical scenario of having the name of the withdrawn candidate still on the ballot despite his exit.

Gavin had 14pc of the votes cast in one ballot box in Dungloe, 13pc of the vote in Edeninfagh and the figure was 11pc at Inch.

Then there was the case of Maria Steen, the social conservative who failed to secure enough nominations to enter the race.

Steen, who couldn’t get on the ballot paper, still appeared to be polling well in parts of Donegal.

Out of the ‘spoiled’ votes, 7pc had Steen’s name written on them according to tally figures. That amounts to a total of 3,613 people - more than double the figure who voted for Gavin.

Some 2,686 ballot papers had Steen’s name scrawled on them with a further 927 seeming to have added commentary - many of them anti-immigration messages - alongside Steen’s name. 

One Donegal County Councillor claimed he received a phone call from a Senator seeking support for Steen, but did not receive a follow-up call from the prospective candidate.

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There was a large amount of spoiled votes, 6,434, in the Donegal constituency. There were a total of 390 spoiled votes in the south Donegal region in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency, meanwhile, with 13pc of the ballots counted classed as spoiled. 

Every bit as concerning for some as the volume of spoiled votes was the level of vitriol penned on some papers. Clearly, there is a large swathe of an angry and frustrated electorate out there. 

Political parties of all persuasions would do well to analyse those numbers and people ahead of any future returns to the voting booths.