Day of the Rae as Cahill and O’Shea battle it out

A ‘how’s it looking now’ chat between Michael Healy Rae, TD and his son Kevin as the tally reveals a strong showing for Michael at the count centre in Killarney this morning.
© Photograph: John Reidy

With the Killarney boxes currently being tallied at the Kerry general election count centre at the Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre, all the focus is on the respective performances of Fine Gael’s Billy O’Shea and Fianna Fáil’s Michael Cahill and, at this early stage, it looks as if they will be almost certainly be battling it out for the seat vacated by Brendan Griffin.

Former Fianna Fáil TD John Brassil (left) in conversation with Cllr Niall Kelleher and Cllr Deirdre Ferris at the general election count

With Michael Healy-Rae on course to top the poll with what could well be a record vote, Pa Daly (Sinn Fein), Norma Foley (FF) and Danny Healy-Rae (Ind) are all poised for a relatively comfortable return to Dáil Éireann and it is expected to be a battle royale for the fifth and final seat.

They are very close in the tally figures with Cahill holding the edge and the veteran county councillor is expected to benefit significantly from transfers.

The official first count is scheduled to commence at around 3.00pm.

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