Kilkenny's newest MEP scooped up transfers to claim her seat in the European Parliament

Irish elections are often described as a marathon and not a sprint. Never has that been more apt than the gruelling six-day, 19-count process that saw Kilkenny’s Kathleen Funchion elevated to the European ranks.

For some, like Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher, it was clear from the first count that they were going to take a seat, and they just had to wait for the transfers to come in.

For Funchion, however, it was a stressful few days as she danced around the fifth, and final, seat with candidates Mick Wallace (I4C), independent Michael McNamara and and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú of Fianna Fáil.

With each round of counting, elimination or election of another candidate, all eyes were on those transfers. There were five possible candidates with a chance to take one of the three final seats, following Kelly’s first count election and Kelleher’s clear lead on the rest.

In the Ireland South constituency, Funchion took a first count total of 50,580 votes, or 7.3%.
This put her slightly behind her nearest rival at that point, Mick Wallace, who took 7.7% (52,803 votes). The two would go head-to-head right to the finish.

Transfers trickled in for the counts that included the distribution of Kelly’s surplus and the first few eliminations, with relatively good transfers on the elimination of several independents and the candidate from The Irish People party.

Transfers that really made a difference started to show from counts six, seven and nine, following the elimination of Graham De Barra (Ind), Cian Prendiville (PBP) and Mary Fitzgibbon (Ind).
Wallace remained ahead and was boosted by significant transfers on counts 12 and 13, following the eliminations of Patrick Murphy (Aontú) and Niamh Hourigan (Labour).

The pivotal moment came on count 14, when transfers saw Funchion pass out Wallace for the first time.
These were the transfers from her Sinn Féin party colleague Paul Gavan. From sitting almost 5,000 votes behind Wallace these 15,750 transfers brought Funchion to almost 10,000 ahead.

Wallace transferred better from Eddie Punch (II), and marginally better from Derek Blighe (IF) and John Mullins (FG), but Funchion got another boost in the transfers from Susan Doyle, and despite doing better on transfers from the final elimination, Grace O’Sullivan (Green), Wallace just couldn’t make up the ground.
It finished with Kathleen Funchion taking the fifth seat on 90,070, compared to Wallace’s 84,157.