The dust is beginning to settle on General Election 2011 and JOE chews on five shocks from the count centres across the land.
1. Brian Lenihan the last Fianna failer left standing in Dublin
The former Finance Minister broke down in tears after he secured the fourth and final seat in the Dublin West constituency and, ultimately, was the only Fianna Fáil candidate to be elected in the entire Dublin region.
We all knew the party was going to take a severe rattling but to only come away with one Dublin seat was a shock with numerous high-profile TDs losing their seats.
Seán Haughey was one of the early casualties on Saturday, as was Brian Lenihan’s brother, Conor.
Fianna Fáil, however, wasn’t the only party to experience a thorough liquidation.
2. Greens suffer TKO
Fianna Fáil’s former parliamentary buddies suffered more of a total wipeout than a liquidation.
The Green Party lost all of their six sitting TDs as the electorate showed no mercy for John Gormley’s troops.
The Alan Alda lookalike lost his seat in Dublin South-East after securing just 2,370 first preference votes, far short of the 6,984 quota needed.
Gormley has since said the Greens are down but not out and rebuilding the party from this major defeat is now the matter at hand.
3. No Fianna Fáil candidate elected in Roscommon-South Leitrim for the first time since 1927
Astonishingly, Independent Luke ‘Ming the Merciless’ Flanagan topped the poll in Roscommon-South Leitrim at the weekend with the second and third seats going to Fine Gael’s Frank Feighan and Denis Naughten on the sixth count.
So, for the first time since 1927, Fianna Fáil is without a representative in the constituency – a sure sign of an electorate in the mood for demonstrating its fury against the party that brought the country to its knees.
4. Michael Noonan tops the poll in Limerick
For the first time since his inaugural Dail election in 1981, Fine Gael’s Michael Noonan topped the poll in Limerick after receiving 30 per cent of the vote.
Mr Noonan’s result was a complete turnabout from the disastrous 2002 General Election and he will today set about preparing for European negotiations on the controversial EU/IMF bailout package.
The usually popular Will O’Dea managed to hold onto his seat for Fianna Fáil when he was elected on the fifth count.
5. Fianna Fáil women frozen out
Women were hardest hit during Fianna Fáil’s disastrous election, as the party didn’t manage to get any female deputies into the Dáil.
Fianna Fáil deputy leader Mary Hanafin lost her seat and Tánaiste Mary Coughlan also failed to get elected, losing the seat she had held in Donegal South West since 1987.
Máire Hoctor of Tipperary North, Margaret Conlon of Cavan Monaghan, Áine Brady of Kildare North and Mary O’Rourke of Longford-Westmeath also lost their seats.
None of Fianna Fáil’s new female candidates, including Averil Power, managed to make enough in-roads to contend for a seat.
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