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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Sam Roberts & Mark Corcoran

General Election 2020: Watch as Sinn Fein supporters sing Come Out, Ye Black and Tans at RDS count centre

Here is the moment Sinn Fein supporters sang Come Out, Ye Black and Tans in a Dublin count centre as their party looks set to make huge gains.

The joyous supporters were at the RDS count centre in the capital this morning.

Mary Lou McDonald's party look set to make massive gains with a huge share of the vote all across the country.

Ms McDonald herself is set to romp home to a dominant victory in Dublin Central, and huge numbers of first preference votes have been recorded for Sinn Fein across the city.

Sinn Fein look set to make huge gains. (Mark Corcoran)

Eoin O Broin in Dublin Mid-West and Paul Donnelly in Dublin West are also in line to comfortably meet the quota.

It comes after last night’s General Election exit poll put the top three parties all on 22%.

Fine Gael appeared to have turned it around in the last days of canvassing after bouncing back in the crucial figures released at 10pm.

Sinn Fein had their highest showing ever, while Fianna Fail were still on course to win the most seats. The result showed the three big parties practically level-pegging, with all on 22%.

Fine Gael had a slight edge on 22.4%, Sinn Fein held their own on 22.3% and Fianna Fail were on 22.2%, making it a virtual dead heat.

Opening scenes of count at Phibblestown Count Centre in Dublin this morning. (Stephen Colllins/Collins Photos)

But with a margin of error of 1.3% it’s impossible to split the top three.

It was a stunning turnaround for the outgoing Government party of Fine Gael.

They were looking like they were in freefall, but now could theoretically challenge again to be the lead party in terms of seats after the counting is done.

There was a mixture of jubilation and confusion among the party chiefs of Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail last night.

Fine Gael had been as low as 20% in opinion polls, while Sinn Fein were riding high at up to 25% although there were fears they would plummet after a bad week.

Opening scenes of count at Phibblestown Count Centre in Dublin this morning. (Stephen Colllins/Collins Photos)

Fianna Fail hovered around 23% worried they might fall between the two stools.

It was virtually impossible last night to see how exactly the votes would spread in the next day or two, with the last seats in the majority of constituencies going to go down to the wire.

The exit poll was conducted by Ipsos/MRBI for RTE, the Irish Times, TG4 and UCD.

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