Fionnán Sheahan: Exit wounds – how the Green Party’s 12 TDs shape up ahead of the next general election

Catherine Martin holds only safe seat, Eamon Ryan’s successor enters a ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’, the rest fight for survival

There will be an intriguing contest to replace Eamon Ryan in Dublin Bay South. Photo: PA

Fionnán Sheahan

Eamon Ryan’s auld constituency colleague from his days in Dublin South, the late Séamus Brennan, used to say about election counts, “When you’re not popular on the first count, you don’t suddenly become popular on the second count.” The late Fianna Fáil minister was a great psephologist of modern times.

The Brennanism summed up the Green Party’s problem in the local and European elections. Compared with five years previously, their vote was well down and the transfers weren’t coming as easily. As he assessed Ciarán Cuffe’s chances of holding his MEP seat in the RDS on the Sunday night of the count, Ryan pointed to the trend in the counts on the Saturday.