2019 Louth County Council election

A Louth County Council election was held in County Louth in Ireland on 24 May 2019 as part of that year's local elections. All 29 councillors were elected for a five-year term of office from 5 local electoral areas (LEAs) by single transferable vote.

2019 Louth County Council election

24 May 2019
All 29 seats to Louth County Council 15 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party Sinn Féin Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Seats won 7 7 5 Seat change 3 2 2   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Labour Party Green Party Independent Seats won 3 1 6 Seat change 1 1 3
Map showing the area of Louth County Council
Council control after election TBD

The 2018 LEA boundary review committee altered the divisions used in the 2014 elections by splitting the ten-seat Drogheda Borough District into two LEAs. Its terms of reference required no change in the total number of councillors but set a lower maximum LEA size of seven councillors. Other LEA seat allocations were unchanged but boundary adjustments were necessitated by population shifts revealed by the 2016 census.

Following the elections Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil emerged as the join largest party with 7 seats. Sinn Féin lost 1 seat in Dundalk and 2 in Drogheda. Fianna Fáil gained a seat from Sinn Féin and also from the Green Party in Dundalk. Accounting for the defection of Kevin Callan after 2014, Fine Gael returned with 5 seats, a loss of 2 seats overall. The Labour Party increased their numbers by 1 seat to 3 by gaining another seat in Drogheda.

Kevin Callan won a seat in each of the 2 Drogheda LEAs. He will now have to decide which one he wishes to represent. The casual vacancy was filled at a meeting of the full Council on 17 June 2019 by Declan Power, who had run for Fianna Fáil in 2019 but who had since quit the party.

Results by party

Party		Seats	±	First Pref. votes	FPv%	±%
	Sinn Féin	7	-3	10,651	24.10%	7.32%
	Fianna Fáil	7	2	8,624	19.51%	0.48%
	Fine Gael	5	2	8,891	20.12%	0.56%
	Labour Party	3	1	3,501	7.92%	2.95%
	Green Party	1	1	2,829	6.40%	2.54%
	Renua	0		1,463	3.31%	3.31%
	Direct Democracy	0		142	0.32%	1.59%
	United People	0		134	0.30%	0.30%
	People Before Profit	0		101	0.23%	0.06%
	Independent	6	3	7,854	17.77%	1.27%
Totals		29		44,190	100%

Candidates by LEA

Ardee

Ardee — 6 Seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8	Count 9
	Fine Gael	Dolores Minogue[c 1]	15.28%	1,404
	Fine Gael	Colm Markey[c 1]	15.11%	1,388
	Sinn Féin	Pearse McGeough[c 1]	10.96%	1,007	1,011	1,018	1,040	1,055	1,113	1,411
	Independent	Jim Tenanty[c 1]	10.40%	955	978	983	1,048	1,178	1,295	1,396
	Fianna Fáil	John Sheridan	9.47%	870	877	887	902	933	976	996	1,114	1,131
	Independent	Hugh D. Conlon	8.35%	767	771	786	825	842	911	928	1,054	1,099
	Fianna Fáil	Fintan Malone	7.07%	649	661	664	685	757	808	851	917	949
	Green Party	Seán Connolly	5.54%	509	514	519	557	577	635	652
	Sinn Féin	Brendan McKenna	5.36%	492	500	501	515	553	576
	Independent	Kevin Carroll	4.57%	420	426	428	483	512
	Fine Gael	Finnan McCoy	4.42%	406	423	448	464
	Independent	Albert D. Byrne	2.07%	190	192	194
	Independent	Enda Murray	1.40%	129	132
Electorate: 20,007   Valid: 9,186   Spoilt: 281   Quota: 1,313   Turnout: 9,467 (47.32%)

Drogheda Urban

Drogheda Urban — 6 Seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8	Count 9	Count 10	Count 11
	Labour Party	Paul Bell[c 1]†††††	14.76%	1,292
	Labour Party	Pio Smith[c 1]	14.22%	1,245	1,255
	Sinn Féin	Joanna Byrne[c 2]	10.54%	923	927	939	959	975	1,109	1,129	1,372
	Independent	Kevin Callan[c 1]	10.25%	897	902	905	913	936	951	996	1,012	1,030	1,124	1,292
	Fianna Fáil	James Byrne	9.10%	797	801	804	804	807	816	838	848	853	1,076	1,251
	Independent	Paddy McQuillan	8.78%	769	774	793	819	858	875	907	943	993	1,035	1,086
	Fine Gael	Richie Culhane[c 1]	6.64%	581	583	585	587	593	596	623	629	634	671
	Independent	Frank Godfrey[c 1]	5.92%	518	523	525	527	551	560	646	664	681	772	881
	Fianna Fáil	Anthony Moore	5.78%	506	507	510	511	521	524	577	586	589
	Renua	Michael O'Dowd	3.45%	302	304	309	314	354	359
	Sinn Féin	David Saurin[c 2]	3.19%	279	280	290	295	303	367	373
	Sinn Féin	Kenneth Flood[c 1]	2.98%	261	262	265	271	278
	Renua	Maria McCabe	1.19%	104	105	107	111
	People Before Profit	Angus Macdonald	1.15%	101	101	101
	Direct Democracy	Christopher Faulkner	1.11%	97	97	108	117
	United People	Jeffrey Rudd	0.95%	83	83
Electorate: 20,424   Valid: 8,755   Spoilt: 241   Quota: 1,251   Turnout: 8,496 (44.05%)

Drogheda Rural

Drogheda Rural — 4 Seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7
	Fine Gael	Oliver Tully[c 1]††	16.62%	965	971	1,005	1,060	1,173
	Labour Party	Michelle Hall	16.60%	964	977	1,000	1,035	1,095	1,097	1,214
	Independent	Kevin Callan[c 1]†	15.43%	896	912	937	1,048
	Sinn Féin	Tom Cunningham[c 1]	11.42%	663	672	708	730	765	765	1,113
	Sinn Féin	Leanne Saurin	10.38%	603	616	628	651	689	690
	Renua	Eamon Sweeney	9.78%	568	579	591	620	727	732	787
	Fianna Fáil	Richard Cooney	8.21%	477	479	561	585
	Independent	Frank Godfrey[c 1]	5.46%	317	323	343
	Fianna Fáil	Declan Power	4.46%	259	261
	United People	Jeffrey Rudd	0.88%	51
	Direct Democracy	Patrick Greene	0.77%	45
Electorate: 13,070   Valid: 5,808   Spoilt: 123   Quota: 1,162   Turnout: 5,931 (45.62%)

Dundalk–Carlingford

Dundalk–Carlingford — 6 Seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6
	Sinn Féin	Antóin Watters[c 2]	16.48%	1,563
	Fine Gael	John McGahon[c 1]††††	14.31%	1,357
	Fianna Fáil	Erin McGreehan	12.14%	1,151	1,216	1,222	1,237	1,535
	Fianna Fáil	Seán Kelly	11.30%	1,072	1,077	1,157	1,216	1,297	1,361
	Fianna Fáil	Conor Keelan[c 1]	10.66%	1,011	1,015	1,052	1,089	1,221	1,279
	Sinn Féin	Edel Corrigan[c 1]	9.82%	931	1,005	1,588
	Green Party	Eoin Daly	8.68%	823	834	875	976	1,112	1,180
	Fine Gael	Roisin Duffy	8.53%	809	823	832	844
	Sinn Féin	Eugene Garvey	8.09%	767	802
Electorate: 20,308   Valid: 9,484   Spoilt: 254   Quota: 1,355   Turnout: 9,738 (48.55%)

Dundalk South

Dundalk South — 7 Seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8	Count 9
	Independent	Maeve Yore[c 1]	15.52%	1,701
	Green Party	Marianne Butler[c 1]	13.66%	1,497
	Sinn Féin	Ruairí Ó Murchú[c 2]†††	12.99%	1,423
	Fine Gael	Maria Doyle[c 1]	12.28%	1,346	1,409
	Sinn Féin	Tomás Sharkey[c 1]	10.37%	1,136	1,185	1,201	1,264	1,289	1,333	1,336	1,825
	Fianna Fáil	Liam Reilly[c 1]	9.87%	1,082	1,131	1,142	1,155	1,157	1,229	1,233	1,262	1,300
	Fianna Fáil	Emma Coffey[c 2]	6.84%	750	805	836	885	888	1,006	1,021	1,098	1,181
	Fine Gael	Linus English	5.80%	635	660	679	701	702	778	792	806	832
	Sinn Féin	Anne Campbell[c 2]	5.50%	603	621	638	674	695	755	758
	Renua	Niamh Boyle	4.46%	489	524	544	602	603
	Independent	Oliver Morgan	2.69%	295	332	345
Electorate: 23,841   Valid: 10,957   Spoilt: 267   Quota: 1,370   Turnout: 11,224 (47.08%)

Changes Since 2019

• †Drogheda Rural Independent Cllr Kevin Callan resigned his seat on 17 June 2019 as he had been elected for both LEAs. Former Fianna Fáil candidate, Declan Power, was co-opted to fill the vacancy.[1]
• ††Drogheda Rural Fine Gael Cllr Oliver Tully died on 9 July 2019. On 16 September 2019 his widow, Eileen, was co-opted to fill the vacancy.[2]
• †††Dundalk South Sinn Féin Cllr Ruairi O Murchú was elected as a TD for Louth at the 2020 General Election. Former Cllr Kevin Meenan was co-opted to fill the vacancy on 24 February 2020.[3]
• ††††Dundalk-Carlingford Fine Gael Cllr John McGahon was elected to the Seanad on 31 March 2020.[4] A co-option will take place in due course.
• †††††Drogheda Labour Cllr Paul Bell resigned his seat on 28 June 2020 upon his appointment by the Government to the Labour Court.[5] A co-option will take place in due course.

Footnotes

1. Outgoing councillor elected in 2014.
2. Outgoing councillor coopted subsequent to the 2014 election.

References

Sources

• "Louth County Council - Local Election candidates". RTÉ. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
• "Local Elections Results 2019". Louth County Council. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
• Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee No. 1 (13 June 2018). "Report 2018" (PDF). Government Publications. pp. 76–79, 155. ISBN 978-1-4064-2990-9. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
• Phelan, John Paul (19 December 2018). "S.I. No. 626/2018 — County of Louth Local Electoral Areas Order 2018". electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB). Retrieved 8 May 2019.
• Phelan, John Paul (17 January 2019). "S.I. No. 6/2019 — County Of Louth Local Electoral Areas And Municipal Districts (Amendment) Order 2019". electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB). Retrieved 15 May 2019.

1. https://www.lmfm.ie/news/power-co-opted-onto-louth-county-council/
2. https://www.lmfm.ie/news/eileen-tully-co-opted-to-louth-county-council/
3. https://www.lmfm.ie/news/lmfm-news/three-sinn-fein-members-co-opted-onto-louth-and-meath-county-councils/
4. https://www.talkofthetown.ie/john-mcgahon-elected-to-seanad-eireann/
5. https://droghedalife.com/news/paul-bell-appointed-to-labour-court