Election 2024 in Cork - All seats filled in Cork as Cobh recount completed
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All seats have been filled in the 2024 local elections for both Cork City Council and Cork County Council.
History was made with the election of the city's first black city councillor.
You can see how the seats were filled below. You can follow day four of vote counting here.
And with all the seats filled, we are going to wrap up this liveblog of the Cork local elections!
You can follow the Limerick Mayoral election and the race for the MEP seats on our dedicated liveblog here.
To see a full breakdown of how the seats were filled, head to ourIrish Examiner election hub.
5.30pm
The recount in Cobh has concluded.
The following councillors have been deemed elected: Sheila O’Callaghan (FF), Anthony Barry (FG), Sinéad Sheppard (FG), Cathal Rasmussen (LAB), Ger Curley (II) and Dominic Finn (FF)
Sinn Féin TD Kathleen Funchion has said that she is "hopeful" of taking a European seat, but that the party will need to reassess its own message.
Ms Funchion appears to be in fourth place in Ireland South based on observations of the counting and could be carried to a seat if and when Limerick-based senator Paul Gavan is eliminated.
"It's not the day that we wanted to have, it's important to be honest about that."
Ms Funchion said that Sinn Féin would have to "regroup" after the results and "see where it didn't work out", despite an overall increase in the number of local authority seats the party holds.
"It's really important that we are match fit for the general election because I think we need a change of government.
"We want to be in government. We know that the issues affecting people last week are affecting them today."
Some interesting facts from the Ireland South count centre in Nemo.
The estimated 713,000 ballots cast in Ireland South weigh in at a whopping 5.818 metric tonnes. If you laid the ballot papers out end to end, they would stretch for 4,563km.
As one reporter said: You could lay a trail of ballot papers across the USA from New York on the Atlantic seaboard to San Francisco on the shores of the Pacific Ocean and still have enough left over to wallpaper the Empire State Building.
The counting is set to go on a while yet. Martin Harvey, returning officer for Ireland South, said that the first count is now expected at about 4pm, although it might come sooner.
Fine Gael’s Sean Kelly is leading the pack, with the table laden with first preference votes bearing his name.
“It seems that if Mr Kelly is elected on the first count the rest of the day then will be taken up counting his second votes to determine his quota,” Mr Harvey said.
“We’ll be doing the adjudication of the spoiled votes in about one hour’s time," he said. Candidates may then get extra first preference votes from what was initially categorised as a spoiled ballot.
The count will most likely last until Tuesday evening or into Wednesday, he said. In the last European elections, when there were also 23 candidates on the ballot, the count was at a similar stage at this time.
Two hundred count staff are now processing almost 1.4m ballots in Nemo Rangers.
Seasoned election watchers at Nemo estimate the quota in Ireland South will be between 110,000 and 115,000 depending on the number of spoiled ballots.
They estimate Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly will be approximately 10,000 votes over the quota to be elected on the first count with Fianna Fáil's Billy Kelleher in second place but shy of the quota on the first count.
Counting is underway again! In Nemo Rangers GAA complex, votes in the Ireland South constituency for the European elections are being counted. Count manager Tim Healy does not expect a first count to be completed before 1pm.
Meanwhile, in the local elections, a recount in the Cobh LEA is also underway.
Looking to catch up on the election? Here are some reads we would recommend to get you up to speed:
Election results suggest nobody knows exactly what they want;
Who knew covering a count centre could be such an emotional affair?
Sinn Féin became boring and predictable, and voters responded accordingly;
retains its position as the largest party on Cork City Council
Eoin English has been on the ground in Cork City Hall all weekend. Last night, he shared this analysis of the city hall count.
"Fianna Fáil has retained its position as the largest party on the 31-seat Cork City Council.
"It came as a Solidarity councillor won the dogfight against an anti-vax, anti-immigration library protester — who described himself last night as a “truth-seeker” — for the final seat in a northside ward.
"Labour had a successful election, going from one to an almost guaranteed three seats."
Count staff and reporters worked late into the night but we have a new Cork City Council.
All seats have been filled on the city council and history was made with the election of the city's first black city councillor - the Green Party’s Honore Kamegni.
You can find full results from the Cork City Council race here.
It's the same in the Cork County Hall race, however a recount in Cobh is set to take place today.
The 11th count in Cobh saw Fianna Fáil’s Dominic Finn beat the Green Party’s Cliona O’Halloran to the sixth and final seat by just seven votes. A transfer of Labour councillor Cathal Rasmussen’s votes saw Ms O’Halloran rise to 1,369 votes, just behind Mr Finn’s 1,376.
The results for Cork County Council can be found at our live election results hub.
Labour's Laura Harmon has won a third seat for Labour on Cork City Council.
She has just been deemed elected on the 14th count in the Cork south west local electoral area.
Fianna Fáil candidate Terry Coleman and Independent Albert Deasy have also been elected in the LEA, taking the final seats here, and the last three seats on council.
The count has now concluded.
Sinn Féin candidate Joe Lynch has been elected in the Cork City south west local electoral area on the 13th count.
Mr Lynch joins Fianna Fáil’s Fergal Dennehy and Colm Kelleher and Fine Gael’s Garrett Kelleher, with three seats still to be filled in the south west ward.
The fight for remaining seats continues between Labour’s Laura Harmon, Fianna Fáil’s Terry Coleman, Independent candidate Albert Deasy, and the Social Democrat’s Ciarán McCarthy.
In the Cork North East LEA, Green Party Cllr Oliver Moran and Worker's Party Cllr Ted Tynan have both been re-elected.
They took the final two seats in the area on the 11th count without reaching the quota.
Meanwhile, the final three candidates have been elected in the Midleton/East Cork constituency, with the fourth and final incumbent hanging onto her seat.
Fianna Fáil’s Ann Marie Ahern was elected on the 12th count with 1,468 votes, gaining 140 from Mona Stromsoe’s transfers.
Ms Ahern joins new candidate for her party Patrick Mulcahy, who was elected on the previous count and will be one of three newcomers.
Fine Gael’s Rory Cocking and Independent John Buckley were both elected on the12th count, with 1,835 and 1,468 votes respectively, getting 101 and 289 transfer votes.
Fine Gael’s Alison Curtin was not elected, ending with 1,417 votes after gaining 71 transfers, leaving her after ending up 51 votes shy of Ms Ahern.
Ahern, Cocking and Buckley will join Mulcahy, Independent Mary Linehan Foley, Fine Gael’s Michael Hegarty and Social Democrats Liam Quaide on the seven seater constituency.
In East Cork, there are four candidates still in the race to win three seats as votes from Aontú’s Mona Stromsoe are being distributed, with the council likely to have three or four new faces.
Independent Mary Linehan Foley and Fine Gael’s Michael Hegarty topped the poll, reaching the quota of 2,026 on the first count.
They will be joined by their fellow incumbent councillor Liam Quaide of the Social Democrats and newcomer Patrick Mulcahy of Fianna Fáil, both of whom were elected tonight at the 9th and 11th counts.
The fourth sitting councillor who sought re-election, Fianna Fáil's Ann Marie Ahern is currently on 1,328 seats and it will be tight between herself and Fine Gael’s Alison Curtin, currently on 1,346 and waiting to see which way unpredictable Aontu transfer votes go after Stromsoe’s elimination.
Fine Gael is likely to see at least one of veteran Hegarty’s first-time running mates elected, with Rory Cocking on 1,771 votes.
Independent John Buckley, on 1,546, is likely to take the sixth seat, leaving Ahern and Curtin to battle it out, with the election of Cocking possibly swinging the tide in Curtin’s favour as she could stand to gain significant transfer votes from her party colleague.
Fine Gael Cllr Deirdre Forde and Sinn Féin Cllr Orla O'Leary have lost their seats on Cork City Council as the Labour Party took a second seat through Peter Horgan in the city's south east local electoral area (LEA).
Ms Forde and Ms O'Leary have both been eliminated in their respective wards within the last half an hour.
Labour is expected to win a third seat later, through Laura Harmon in the south west LEA.
History has been made in Cork tonight with the election of the city's first black city councillor.
The Green Party’s Honore Kamegni was deemed elected in the city's south east local electoral area on the 12th count.
Mr Kamegni, 46, a manager with An Post in Little Island, who arrived in Ireland from Cameroon in 2002, moved to Cork in 2006, and became an Irish citizen in 2013, celebrated his election with his trademark cry: "Up the Green Party".
He said despite being targeted by significant racist abuse on social media, the people he met on the campaign trail were always supportive.
“They wanted to see change, they wanted to see new faces, new ideas and new energy,” he said.
The sustained racist online abuse began to ramp up earlier this year.
He said: “I was not used to this kind of reaction from people. When I first started getting it, I thought ‘my God - what is happening?’
“I have been canvassing for 14 months. I have covered every corner of my ward, from the rural to the city.
“I have never spoken to any residents on the doorstep who was hostile to me. That doesn’t happen. Any kind of hostility and hatred was happening online.
“My message to those people today is the result – the response I’m getting from the election shows that people are rejecting their message.”
Fianna Fáil’s Mary Rose Desmond has been re-elected on the 12th count to the Cork City South East LEA having surpassed the quota.
Labour’s Peter Horgan and Fine Gael’s Des Cahill have also been elected on the 12th count.
The South East LEA is the third LEA to be filled.
Elsewhere, Fine Gael’s Joe Kavanagh and Fianna Fáil’s Margaret McDonnell have been elected to the Cork City North East ward, having surpassed the quota on the 9th count.
Catch up the rest of Sunday's events, as well as Saturday's here.