{"id":464554,"date":"2026-05-24T08:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T08:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/464554\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T08:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T08:49:10","slug":"social-democrats-daniel-ennis-elected-in-dublin-central-byelection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/464554\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Democrats’ Daniel Ennis elected in Dublin Central byelection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Ennis has been deemed elected in the Dublin Central byelection, with the race in Galway West more closely contested.<\/p>\n

Ennis, the Social Democrats candidate, said he was \u201cjust delighted\u201d after he topped the poll in what party leader Holly Cairns hailed as an \u201cemotional\u201d and \u201cgreat day for the party.<\/p>\n

The poll topper in Galway West was Independent Ireland councillor Noel Thomas<\/a>, closely followed by Fine Gael senator Se\u00e1n Kyne.<\/p>\n

Labour councillor Helen Ogbu was a more distant third in the constituency after the first count.<\/p>\n

Constituents cast their votes on Friday to fill seats vacated by Catherine Connolly in Galway West when she became president and former minister Paschal Donohoe, who stopped representing Dublin Central to become the World Bank\u2019s chief knowledge officer.<\/p>\n

\"IndependentIndependent Ireland candidate Noel Thomas (left) with Independent Ireland TD Michael Collins (Niall Collins)<\/p>\n

The protracted process of sorting and counting votes began at 9am at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin and the Galway Lawn Tennis Club.<\/p>\n

Speaking as he arrived at the count centre, Ennis said he believed he topped the polls because \u201cwe didn\u2019t bend on who we were\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just listening to people, meeting them where they were, whether they agreed with you or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the politics of decency, politics of hope and inclusion, and people wanted that on the doors. They wanted that positive approach, they wanted change, but they wanted positive change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janice Boylan, Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s candidate in Dublin Central \u2013 the constituency of party leader Mary Lou McDonald \u2013 finished second.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s Galway West candidate, Mark Lohan, fared less favourably, with 6.7 per cent of first preference votes.<\/p>\n

McDonald said it was \u201cnot our day\u201d and said political growth sometimes takes \u201cdetours\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Galway West, Mr Thomas was ahead after the first count with 10,007 votes.<\/p>\n

\"SinnSinn F\u00e9in election candidate Janice Boylan arrives with party leader Mary Lou McDonald (Conor O Mearain\/PA)<\/p>\n

The poll topper is a former Fianna F\u00e1il representative and was followed by Kyne for Fine Gael on 9,647 first preferences.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach and Fianna F\u00e1il leader Miche\u00e1l Martin was at the Galway Lawn Tennis Club for the count and told reporters his party has \u201creal problems\u201d with \u201csome constituencies\u201d.<\/p>\n

The party lost its deposit over Dublin Central candidate John Stephens, who was excluded from the race after count two.<\/p>\n

In Galway West, his candidate Cillian Keane had 8.8 per cent of first preferences.<\/p>\n

Martin said the party will \u201cexamine\u201d and \u201creflect\u201d on the by-election results, adding: \u201cWe would have preferred a higher percentage outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TaoiseachTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said the party will \u2018reflect\u2019 on the by-election results (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019ll do our homework and we always want to do better, and that\u2019s our focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin said it was a well-known pattern that by-elections do not correlate with general elections, adding that candidates can be shown to perform better in subsequent contests.<\/p>\n

He said the frontrunners in Galway West \u2013 Kyne and Thomas \u2013 had gained profile in the previous general election.<\/p>\n

The campaign of Gerard \u201cThe Monk\u201d Hutch, who has been described in court by a judge as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation, was closely watched in Dublin Central.<\/p>\n

He was eliminated from the race after the seventh count, having not appeared at the centre by that time.<\/p>\n

Green Party candidate in Dublin Central Janet Horner, who performed well after the party lost all its seats bar one in the 2024 general election, was asked about outperforming Hutch.<\/p>\n

She said they had \u201cfirmly rejected the type of politics that have been offered\u201d and that had capitalised on people\u2019s real frustrations.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIt is frustrating to see how much of the media narrative that the likes of Hutch captured and I think the narrow stereotype of our wonderful, vibrant and diverse communities that we have in Dublin Central, that is maybe perpetuated as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s Marie Sherlock, who took the last seat in Dublin Central in the 2024 general election, beating Hutch, said that they \u201cheard a lot about Gerard Hutch\u201d during the election campaign, but \u201chis vote has slipped\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis playing up of him as a major electoral force to be reckoned with has not proven correct today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Ennis has been deemed elected in the Dublin Central byelection, with the race in Galway West more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-464554","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\/464554","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=464554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}