I’d say the only reason he headed to FF is that he looked at the dearth of talent there and reckoned it was a fast-track to a front bench seat.
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Thanks bud. Noted.
Can’t blame him for that.
Limerick County - what is the feeling here? I find it very difficult to see FG return two again. Both FG TDs scraped back by less than a thousand last time. It’s harder to work out which will survive.
I think Collins 2 will get in but this O’Donoghue chap might have a chance.
You’re not giving SF the kudos for putting party politics aside here - That plan was largely drawn up in 2015, signed off in 2016 … By 2018 it was clear it wasnt working and that the numbers were off … but more importantly, FG did little to rents in this time - which for me is a bigger crisis. They’ve gone and protected landlords in this period and threw the goodwill SF and other parties had singing up to building Ireland plan right back in their face.
Mayo?
Dillon and Mulherin will split the vote
Funny - I must have imagined rent protection zones 
MHR had something like 33% last time, he’s polling at 20% this time.
DHR got 12.6% first preference last time after polling at 4%
Mayo is probably their best chance to take two anywhere but SF have a good chance. Big battle for the last seat there I think and hard to call. SF might be able to get their vote up to between 8 and 9k and that could be enough but transfers could prove a problem for them. I wouldn’t say two FF is guaranteed - 2016 saw 31k FG votes to 17k FF but Jenny being Taoiseach was obviously the key factor in that.
A general election and covering all the constituencies really is a big logistical exercise for the Eire National Broadcaster. They’re even calling in crew from the sports department. Des Cahill will be doing the tally and reporting on Wicklow. No mention of where they’re dispatching Darren Frehill to.
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The difficulty for SF is that one of Dillon or Mulherin’s transfers could get the other over the line.
SF will get a seat in Mayo . If they don’t the surge may not be happening .
The horse had well and truly bolted when rent protection zones came in
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They might be helped by Jerry Cowley not running - he usually picked up a decent vote.
Conway Walsh has built up quite a profile. But Ming has thrown his weight behind seoirse McHugh of the greens according to Ivan Yates so some of that floating left vote may make its way to her. Sinn Fein will be gutted not to win this seat over any other of the 50/50 ones.
Having a look at Roscommon-Galway again now. Claire Kerrane is a very presentable candidate for SF there. She could steal some of Fitzmaurice’s vote. Very much odds against but might have an outside shot. It could be one of those like Offaly last time where nobody thought they had a shot but they nicked it.
Some Wexford Today online poll. Doesn’t look the most scientific, but had:
Mythen 18%
Verona 17%
Malcolm 12%
Browne 11%
Howlin 10%
Kehoe 7%
D’Arcy 6%
Carthy 5%
Sheehan 5%
Codd2%
Delighted to see Kehoe doing so poorly. Army personnel have been lobbying people not to vote for him. Looks like they are doing a good job.