DONEGAL SOUTH-WEST | PEARSE DOHERTY

Pearse tops poll

Four for Pearse: Pearse Doherty casts his vote with wife Róisín and parents Michael and Gráinne

SINN FÉIN’S tally team were only too keen to assemble for the second time in three months at a count centre in Donegal South-West as few were doubtful of Pearse Doherty’s chances of re-election after his historic by-election win in November.
With the help of some Independent candidates’ passes, almost 60 party activists and supporters gathered to count the tallies – much to the media’s delight as the Sinn Féin table became their regular source of an accurate tally.
South Donegal’s boxes were opened first and it soon became clear that Pearse would be elected over the quota and with word filtering in from Donegal North-East we all knew it would be a great day for the county.