{"id":463854,"date":"2026-05-23T20:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/463854\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T20:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:12:12","slug":"bye-elections-5-takeaways-as-electoral-picture-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/463854\/","title":{"rendered":"Bye-elections: 5 takeaways as electoral picture emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9’s Political Correspondent M\u00edche\u00e1l Lehane runs through five takeaways as counting continues in the bye-elections in Dublin Central and Galway West and the electoral picture becomes clearer.<\/p>\n

1: Social Democrats’ soaring<\/p>\n

The votes are still being counted, but it’s clear that Daniel Ennis is on his way to the D\u00e1il next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

His victory in Dublin Central will mark an important milestone for the Social Democrats.<\/p>\n

It will be the first constituency where the party will hold two seats.<\/p>\n

More significantly, it will put the Social Democrats ahead of Labour in the D\u00e1il’s pecking order.<\/p>\n

That means more prominent speaking slots.<\/p>\n

\"Social
\nDaniel Ennis of the Social Democrats topped the Dublin Central poll<\/p>\n

2: Fianna F\u00e1il failure<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il began the day with low expectations in Dublin Central.<\/p>\n

These fears were justified, and the 4.2% showing for John Stephens was a new low for the party.<\/p>\n

Things look a bit healthier in Galway West but the party never got close to the shake-up either.<\/p>\n

Miche\u00e1l Martin has pledged a party reflection on these results.<\/p>\n

His leadership may well come under the spotlight again when TDs and Senators meet in Leinster House next week.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the proximity of the upcoming EU Presidency will probably keep the circling wolves at bay for just a little longer.<\/p>\n

3: Sinn F\u00e9in fizzled out<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in has failed to land a blow in two bye-elections which came at a time of major public discontent over the cost of living.<\/p>\n

All this despite the fact that the party raises the issue almost every D\u00e1il sitting day when it speaks during Leaders’ Questions.<\/p>\n

\"Sinn
\nMary Lou McDonald said that her party is ‘building’ despite the party failing to top the poll in her constituency<\/p>\n

The message is, on the evidence of these elections, not landing with the electorate.<\/p>\n

That poses a challenge for the party leader who insisted this afternoon that her position is not in peril.<\/p>\n

After all, she was ratified in that role once again at the party’s Ard Fheis just three weeks ago.<\/p>\n

4: Protests play out electorally<\/p>\n

The Galway West count still has a distance to travel.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, two parties on the opposite side of the tumultuous Easter fuel protests are vying for the seat.<\/p>\n

Independent Ireland’s Noel Thomas was prominent during those demonstrations, and he was narrowly ahead after the opening count.<\/p>\n

However, Fine Gael’s Se\u00e1n Kyne is snapping at his heals, raising the strong possibility that a Government candidate could actually win the bye-election.<\/p>\n

\"Taoiseach
\nFianna F\u00e1il’s vote in Dublin Central was a new low for the party<\/p>\n

All this comes only a few weeks after those days of national upheaval and the palpable anger towards the Government on the streets.<\/p>\n

It is quite a political riddle.<\/p>\n

5: Indefatigable Independents<\/p>\n

The independent vote in Dublin Central of 21.6% was up by more than 7 percentage points.<\/p>\n

That is largely due to the presence of Gerry Hutch and Malachy Steenson.<\/p>\n

While immigration was not the top issue in this constituency this time around, both candidates have always been outspoken on this topic.<\/p>\n

Their combined vote suggests that a TD campaigning on this contentious subject could well be in the hunt to win a seat here at the next general election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9’s Political Correspondent M\u00edche\u00e1l Lehane runs through five takeaways as counting continues in the bye-elections in Dublin Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-463854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}