In an election with its share of heartache – not least for Ireland’s two historically dominant forces – there has at least been a happy ending for the couple running for rival parties in the same constituency.
To Holly Cairns, a candidate for the centre-left Social Democrats, competing against her partner in Cork South-West had felt like a “badly written romcom”.
Would-be screenwriters got their happy ending however after both she and Christopher O’Sullivan, a candidate for the centre-right Fianna Fáil party, won two of the three parliamentary seats up for grabs.
While O’Sullivan had been been ahead of her in earlier counts of votes cast under Ireland’s system of proportional representation, and seemed set to be elected, Cairns came from behind to secure her seat in the early hours of Monday morning on the eighth and final count, leapfrogging another candidate.
“It doesn’t quite feel real yet but it feels great,” Cairns told the Irish Examiner newspaper after her election for the first time to the Dáil.
“People in Ireland are ready for a change. You can tell that from this election, from the polls.”
Cairns had been elected as a Cork county councillor last year with the Social Democrats. O’Sullivan topped the poll in the same election for Fianna Fáil, a centrist party, and became mayor of Cork county council.
There was however a bittersweet aspect to the victory by Cairns, who, as counting of votes by late morning on Monday stood, was the only woman to have been elected in all of the urban and rural constituencies of Cork.
Ciairín de Buis of Women for Election, which supports female candidates, noted that that the Social Democrats had run the most balanced ticket (55% women) but said that it had been a disappointing day overall in terms of redressing political gender balances.
“With half the seats filled, it’s been a disappointing day for women,” she told the Irish Independent.
“We are near the bottom of the table again in the EU with just 22% female representation and it doesn’t look like increases will be made this election.”
