Boxer is back with a bang!
The local election race in Athlone created waves nationally over the weekend, when Kevin 'Boxer' Moran made a spectacular return to politics by taking the largest vote share of any council candidate in Ireland.
'Boxer' swept to victory with an amazing 3,782 first preference votes, or 39.6% of all of the valid ballots in the Athlone electoral area. He could have been elected more than twice over, as his vote was nearly two and a half times the quota.
It's believed Fianna Fáil's Seamus McGrath, in Cork, was the councillor who came closest to matching the extent of Boxer's vote share at the weekend, when he took 36.1% of the first preferences in Carrigaline.
The unequivocal mandate 'Boxer' was given by the people of Athlone could well help propel him back into the Dáil when the next general election comes around sometime between now and next March.
It was a political hurricane locally - and the candidates who managed to hang on its wake were the ones who had been sitting in the council chamber for several years.
Fianna Fáil's Frankie Keena had the second highest number of first preference votes in Athlone, at 1,371. Both he and his colleague, Aengus O'Rourke, were elected on the second count, with O'Rourke taking the lion's share of Boxer's surplus.
Fine Gael's John Dolan had the third highest number of 'firsts' and was elected with room to spare, while the battle for the fifth and last seat was won by Independent Ireland's Paul Hogan on Monday afternoon.
Hogan was eighth in the pecking order after the first count, with 310 first preferences, and was behind Sinn Féin's Conor Dowling-Linehan (445), the Green Party's Louise Heavin (364), and Independent Tom Cleary (316).
However, the Retreat Park native proved transfer-friendly, amassing enough preferences to overtake his rivals and defeat Cleary, on the last count, by 86 votes.
There was no change in the Moate electoral area, where the four sitting councillors: Tom Farrell, Vinny McCormack, Liam McDaniel and Johnnie Penrose were each re-elected.
Farrell (FG) topped the poll, just as he had done in 2019, and saw notable increase in his vote this time around, as did second-placed McCormack (FF). In South Roscommon, meanwhile, the big story was the poll-topping performance of Ballyforan's Emer Kelly. The 24-year-old Independent received nearly 2,000 votes and, remarkably, became the first female councillor ever to be elected in the area.
Independent Curraghboy councillor Tony Ward again proved hugely popular at the polls, coming in with the second highest vote, followed closely by Fine Gael's John Naughten.
Independent Laurence Fallon and Fianna Fáil's John Keogh both retained their council seats, while Fine Gael pulled off something of an upset by taking the sixth and final seat in the wee hours of Monday morning.
Taughmaconnell teenager Sam Brooks, representing Sinn Féin, came agonisingly close to taking that last seat but ultimately lost out to Domnick Connolly, from Fuerty, in the northern end of the Athlone electoral area.