DONEGAL NORTH-EAST | Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Man of the match Mac Lochlainn

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn flanked by Councillor Gerry McMonagle and West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty after his triumph. Photo: Charlie Mc Menamin

BY MARK MULLAN

THE sports hall in Letterkenny’s Aura centre has no doubt seen a few intriguing contests in it’s time but few can have been as clear-cut as Pádraig Mac Lochlainn’s triumph in Donegal North-East on Saturday.
This has always been a fixture that Sinn Féin had hoped to win but few would have expected the compelling nature of Pádraig’s victory.
The Buncrana man had hit the crossbar last time out in 2007 but by the time the tallies were completed on Saturday morning it was clear there were going to be no hard-luck stories this time around.
Pádraig had garnered an unassailable early lead. He had taken almost 10,000 first-preference votes and nearly 25% of the vote. He was a shoe-in to top the poll  – the only question now was whether he would be elected on the first count, an enticing prospect for the assembled Shinners who had been expecting extra-time but were now looking forward to the prospect of an early bath!
And with similar positive reports coming in from neighbouring Donegal South-West, where Pearse Doherty was also putting in a fantastic shift, it was evident that history was going to be made in Donegal. There were even unconfirmed reports that John Downey had cracked a smile before the half-time oranges had been served!
When the first count was declared in late-afternoon, Pádraig’s first preference vote was formally recorded as 9,278– just 202 votes shy of the quota.
At this stage his election was a mere formality and he soon picked up the necessary transfers once the Green Party’s Humphrey Murphy and Independents Ryan Steward and Betty Holmes had left the pitch.
Cue jubilant scenes as Pádraig’s election team and supporters greeted a truly historic day for the county and the North-West as a whole. Two Sinn Féin TDs elected in Donegal for the first time in over 80 years – a clear signal that the political landscape in Ireland has changed irrevocably. In a county that was once a Fianna Fáil heartland, that is a change of seismic proportions.
And while Fianna Fáil may have been guilty of more than a few own goals over recent years, this achievement is much more the result of Sinn Féin’s efforts than it was Fianna Fáil’s implosion.
Pádraig’s was no overnight success. This victory was the result of many years of hard work across this constituency and beyond. The groundwork was laid over the past decade and now Pádraig, as TD for Donegal North East, will take that struggle onto a whole new level.