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Throughout the day in Navan, I witnessed a massively impressive exercise in lifting the vote, despite the weather's best efforts to prove that the Northern Hemisphere could produce weather to rival a tropical monsoon
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It began last Friday the way it would continue for the rest of polling day, with a generous drenching by the elements. I was saturated when I popped around the corner to the Clonliffe Road in Dublin to do my duty, the first of many soakings in a long day. Having wielded the black pencil for Nicky Kehoe, I fired up my motor and headed for Navan. I had volunteered to spend the day in Joe Reilly's constituency ferrying voters to and from polling stations.
This turned out to be an inspired move on my part. Throughout the day in Navan, I witnessed a massively impressive exercise in lifting the vote, despite the weather's best efforts to prove that the Northern Hemisphere could produce weather to rival a tropical monsoon. For my part, I was drafted to help Noel lift the vote from three estates and from early afternoon to 7.30pm that evening we drove constantly, as Noel knocked on doors to check whether or not people had voted and offered lifts to others. The affection and respect for local man 'Joey' Reilly was obvious among the people I met and the verdict on the electronic voting was that it was straightforward and a nice novelty. Each time we returned to the estates, though, the puddles were deeper, the rain heavier. Eventually, my little car gave up, sputtering to a halt in the face of the elements. It was my own fault. I should have packed a rubber dinghy as well as a spare tyre.
Within minutes, backup had arrived and Noel was off again like a Duracell bunny. I squelched back to base and spent the next couple of hours observing Joe Reilly directing operations, sending young and old party workers off in all directions. He barely broke stride to order a batch of chicken curries as he marked off names on his wall of green votes, those considered to be sure Sinn Féin voters. As a snapshot of intense political activity and camaraderie, this was unparalleled.
Among those who arrived in to report was Paddy, who singlehandedly and on foot had brought out 250 votes from his local area. Paddy has been involved for many decades but here was no cynical party hack - his enthusiasm was infectious. Also weighing in late was a contingent of activists from the Six Counties who had provided invaluable organisational assistance during the campaign. This was an all-Ireland party in action.
After the polls closed it was off to Simonstown for the count, a bizarre three-hour experience. Hundreds of party activists waited and sweated in a sports hall while we speculated on whether or not all the modules containing the vote would make it through the floods from the various polling stations. As we lingered impatiently, news came in that Mary Lou McDonald had secured 8% of the vote in Dublin West and that Nora Owen had lost her seat in Dublin North.
When the result finally came it was in cruel fashion. The candidates were led into a side room to be given the results first. Standing on chairs in the hall and straining for a view, the result became apparent as soon as we saw Director of Elections Tony Cantwell's drawn face. Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were alerting their supporters to their respective successes with three and two finger salutes, respectively. The subsequent announcement was academic.
Joe Reilly, it later emerged, had secured over 6,000 first preferences, 9.4% of the vote, coming in fifth on the first count but later overhauled on transfers by Fine Gael's Damien English. Our Navan man had staked a strong claim for a seat next time, however, and his success boded well for the more conventional counting day ahead.
Bleary eyed, I climbed into my now dried out car, the rain having perversely stopped after the polls closed. I headed back to Dublin and bed for a few hours before it all began again.
On Saturday, the RDS hosted what may be the last great manual general election count, a wake greeted with dismay by most party activists, for whom the tallying and the blood sport of a good day-long count is like the World Cup and an All-Ireland Sunday rolled into one.
We didn't have long to wait before the good news started to roll in. All over the country, the Sinn Féin vote was up. Martin Ferris and Seán Crowe were busy wrapping it up early by topping their respective polls. Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin had comfortably retained his seat and Arthur Morgan was nicely placed in Louth, while in the RDS, Dessie Ellis and Nicky Kehoe had pulled out particularly impressive results. Aengus Ó Snodaigh polled a decisive first count success and his victory was assured, although we had to wait until 2.30am for the official declaration.
The day was peppered with eruptions of cheers and flag waving by knots of Sinn Féin election workers, as counts came in and news filtered through of successes elsewhere. This was viewed with obvious displeasure by some political opponents. What they were missing was that the enthusiasm and vibrancy of the youthful Sinn Féin contingent is the very reason why the party is on the up. As the night drew to a close and all that was left to be declared was the election of Aengus and Labour's Mary Upton, one of her supporters turned to another and complained "it wouldn't matter if there were 2,000 of us, they'd still cheer if they got 20 votes". Precisely.
Earlier in the day, listening to the radio, John Bruton had been getting stuck into his successor's legacy. Ignoring his own leadership failures, he opined that the reason Fine Gael had imploded so spectacularly was because the party had depended on personalities rather than policies. There was no General O'Duffy coming over the hill he declared, before singling out the conviction of Sinn Féin as a future model for his party. Bizarre indeed.
For most of the evening, we were confident that we would take six seats, but at the death, even as Fianna Fáil were conceding defeat, transfers wrested a seat from Nicky Kehoe in Dublin Central in favour of Bertie Ahern's running mate, Dermot Fitzpatrick. Sinn Féin immediately sought a recount, but with a 74-vote margin, the prospects were never good.
Nevertheless, on Monday we returned to the RDS to give the famed Fianna Fáil tallyers a run for their money. After another long day, the jig was finally up and Nicky's team conceded but as RTÉ reported on the Nine o'Clock News, you could have been confused over who had actually won, as Nicky was shouldered high and cheered to the rafters for a job well done.
As the campaign finally ended for Sinn Féin and we left the RDS, there was real satisfaction that the party had made a major breakthrough but there was also a strong sense of unfinished business.
Among others across the state, Joe Reilly, Dessie Ellis and Nicky Kehoe are already looking hungrily to the next election. It would be a foolhardy pundit who would bet against them.
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