All seats filled as counting of votes for Ireland South constituency finally concludes

Independent Clare TD Michael McNamara, Fianna Fail’s Cynthia Ni Mhurchu and Sinn Fein TD Kathleen Funchion have been elected as MEPs for the Ireland South constituency.

They confirmed their places in the European Parliament, on Thursday night, after they were the only candidates left in the field following five days of counting.

The final count also caused independent Mick Wallace to become the fifth MEP to lose his seat in the nationwide elections.

The redistributed votes of outgoing Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan, who also lost her seat, decided who was ultimately elected.

The trio join Fine Gael’s Sean Kelly, who was the first of Ireland’s 14 MEPs to be elected, and Fianna Fail’s Billy Kelleher, who reached the quota earlier on Thursday.

The Corkman celebrated with his staff at Nemo Rangers GAA Club with his family, colleagues and the Tanaiste and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin.

“It is emotional to be adjudicated by your peers and to be found to be in good stead with them is a huge honour,” he said, thanking his wife and children.

“Today really is a crowning achievement, to be vindicated for the last five years as their representative in Europe.”

Mr Martin said: “Suffice to say that the Fianna Fail campaign was around the idea that we need to send serious, committed, pro-European Union candidates, be critical yes, but pro the union (to the European Parliament).”

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Ms O’Sullivan, a former Greenpeace activist and Co Waterford surfer, was eliminated after Mr Kelleher’s surplus was distributed.

She said she would not announce now whether she would run for the Dail, and instead would focus on closing her office in Cork city and organising letters of reference for her staff members.

Speaking on Wednesday evening, Ms O’Sullivan admitted that her chances of being re-elected were “slipping away”.

With a “swansong” message, she said it was not just the Green Party’s responsibility to push climate change policies to the fore, but also that of their coalition parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

The former Greenpeace activist said she had not been as “extraordinarily” transfer friendly in this vote as she was in the 2019 European election, and said it “feels that momentum has gone” from the Green Party.

Ms O’Sullivan said: “People have other things on their minds, and that concerns me because as an ecological party and as an ecologist myself, climate change has not gone away by any doubt.”

She also said that her own stance on an EU exception given to Irish farmers allowing them to use organic nitrates had hurt her level of transfer-friendliness.

Ms O’Sullivan added: “Maybe in this case, with the rise of the independents, that also there was a bit of a backlash to some of the maybe inconvenient truths that I was putting out.”

The results mean that Ireland has elected 10 of its 14 MEPs after six days of counting.

Irish voters headed to the polls last Friday to pick 949 local councillors, 14 members of the European Parliament and the country’s first directly elected mayor.

Results emerging from the three elections have been seen as a political boon for coalition partners Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, while the largest opposition party, Sinn Fein, has initiated a review after performing well below its own expectations.

While the main coalition parties Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have consolidated their positions in the European Parliament and across local authorities, Sinn Fein has expressed disappointment for not making further gains.

Though the party has increased its representation in Irish councils and in Europe, it had hoped to be further ahead.

The Green Party has lost both its MEPs and a chunk of its councillors, in a sign of the Green “ebb” that had been feared.