All 18 seats are filled in the three municipal districts of Cavan County Council.
Overall, turnout in Cavan was 55.49 per cent with 34,287 Cavan voters going to the booths.
In Bailieborough- Cootehill turnout was 56.7 per cent, it was 56.6 per cent in Ballyjamesduff and 52.9 per cent in Cavan-Belturbet.
Zoe Tunney Reports:
Four candidates including two women and two Independent candidates took their seats on count one in Aontú's Sarah O'Reilly for Bailieborough-Cootehill, Áine Smith and Brendan Fay in Cavan-Belturbet and Shane P. O'Reilly in Ballyjamesduff. In all, five women were voted in for Cavan with the return of Fine Gael's Carmel Brady to Bailieborough-Cootehill on count 3 and her party colleague Niamh Brady and Fianna Fáil's Patricia Walsh to Cavan-Belturbet both on count 6,
It was disappointment for Sinn Féin stalwart, Paddy McDonald, Fianna Fáil's Aiden Fitzpatrick and Fine Gael's Peter McVitty who all lost their seats in 2024. Two others had resigned their seats. In turn, Cavan gained fiver new councillors, two of them from Sinn Féin, with Damien Brady in Cavan-Belturbet, Noel Connell in Ballyjamesduff and Stiofán Conaty who joins the newly-elected Niall Smith of Fianna Fail in Bailieborough-Cootehill. Fine Gael's Niamh Brady also takes up in Cavan-Belturbet.
Fianna Fáil now have six councillors in Áine Smith, Patricia Walsh and JP Feeley in Cavan-Belturbet; Phillip Brady in Ballyjamesduff and first-time candidate Niall Smith joining long-serving councillor, Clifford Kelly, around the Bailieborough-Cootehill table. Sinn Féin lost Paddy McDonald but gained three councillors in Brady, Conaty and Connell giving them one representative in each LEA now. There are two returning independents who came top and second in their local areas, in Shane P'O'Reilly and Brendan Fay, respectively. Meanwhile, Fine Gael have two councillors in Bailieborough-Cootehill with Carmel Brady and Val Smith; three in Ballyjamesduff in Trevor Smith,Winston Bennett and T P O'Reilly and one, Niamh Brady, in Cavan-Belturbet.
So to summarise, over the next five years, Cavan County Council is made up of one Aontú, two independents, three Sinn Féin, six Fianna Fáil and six Fine Gael councillors. The county now has five female representatives in two LEAs, five new councillors including one returning following a hiatus, a 30-yr-old and a councillor in his 80s. Lester Gordon, the Irish Party candidate was the 'dark horse' of the Cavan campaign only getting knocked out in the Ballyjamesduff constituency on the 8th count. He bowed out with a respectable 1,434 total vote, with his nearest rival getting elected on 1631votes in the same count.
