Wicklow voters endorse Catherine Connolly as 10th President of Ireland

By Hugh O'Farrell Walsh, The Wicklow People

Voters in Wicklow have decided to endorse Catherine Connolly as the 10th President of Ireland.

The final tally in the garden county has put Ms Connolly on 64.9pc or 12,817 votes – followed by Heather Humphreys on 27.8pc or 5,500 votes, both ahead of Fianna Fáil's Jim Gavin who picked up only 7.3pc of the available vote with 1,446 ballots cast in his favour.

Only 73pc of ballot boxes needed to be reviewed before a valid tally became clear shortly before 1pm.

Spoilt votes accounted for 13.8pc of ballots at 3,152 with total valid votes amounting to 19,763.

Several local politicians were spotted in the count centre on Saturday morning, including Cllr Caroline Winstanley of the Social Democrats who were the first party to endorse Catherine Connolly back in July.

Speaking to reporters at the RDS in Dublin, Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore said Catherine Connolly "resonated" with voters.

"I think at the end she had close to 15,000 volunteers who were canvassing around the country for her."

"She just had something for everybody." she added.

Earlier this week the Social Democrats deputy accused Fine Gael of resorting to “Trumpian attack videos” which is “a new low” in Irish politics.

She believes Heather Humphreys led a negative campaign.

"Heather Humphreys spent more time talking about Catherine than she did about her own vision."

Fine Gael Cllr Graham Richmond was also in attendance at the count centre, whose party has accepted “it’s all over bar the counting”.

Wicklow TD John Brady says the fact that Catherine Connolly convincingly outpolled Heather Humphries is significant given that “we are in Simon Harris’s back garden.”

Deputy Brady said the result is decisive.

“Today is Catherine’s day, she ran a very solid and clear campaign, she connected well with voters across the country.”

“This is clearly a vote against the government. A government that is chronically out of touch with the real-life experiences and challenges faced by working people.

“Recent decades have seen our Presidents being elected from outside the political establishment. People with experience, who have shown true independence and acted in the interests of all the people of Ireland, north and south.

“We will be keeping a close eye to see how both government parties respond to this commanding result and questions will be raised about Simon Harris’s leadership, considering this is his own constituency.” he added.