Paul Hosford: Good weekend for the coalition but a bruiser for Sinn Féin
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The waiting, Tom Petty once sang, is the hardest part.
Anyone ensconced in a count centre anywhere in Ireland on Sunday could easily attest to that as hundreds of thousands of ballots were sorted and sifted and piled and checked and rechecked in Castlebar, Cork, and Dublin and the race to the European Parliament entered its true home straight.
In Cork, there was further sense that the Government parties would do well, with Fine Gael's Sean Kelly set to top the poll and Billy Kelleher of Fianna Fáil not far behind.
As the count staff began to sort piles for the top four candidates, it became apparent that Sinn Féin's Kathleen Funchion and Independent Clare TD Michael McNamara would be in those spots, but not far enough ahead of the chasing pack to be comfortable.
Fine Gael's director of elections Simon Coveney seemed buoyed by the size of his second candidate John Mullins's pile of votes, indicating the party was in with a shot of a second seat in Ireland South.
In Dublin, the lead coalition parties look set to take seats with Barry Andrews and Regina Doherty getting large votes.
But the final two places seem largely unclear, with Lynn Boylan of Sinn Féin, radio host Niall Boylan (no relation), Labour's Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, People Before Profit's Brid Smith, and Ciarán Cuffe of the Green Party looking to stay alive and benefit from transfers.
In Midlands-North-West it is a similar story, but with independent Luke Ming Flanagan looking set to hold on to his seat.
It has been a good weekend for the coalition, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael battling it out to lead local Government seats.
Sinn Féin, however, is in with fights in all European constituencies and is seeing its local support collapse, which will pose difficult questions for the leadership.
In local authorities, some counts continued to drag on while Monaghan County Council was wrapped up in the early evening. But, mostly, the waiting.
Mr Petty was the leader of a band called The Heartbreakers, but for now, any heartbreak will be delayed by the waiting.