It took 28 hours of counting over two days, but the final members of the new Clare County Council were finally elected at around nine o'clock last night.
West Clare area candidates had the longest wait but the last count saw four sitting Councillors get over the line – Gabriel Keating, PJ Kelly, Bill Chambers and Michael Hillery.
Earlier, Christy Curtin had topped the poll, while the list of Councillors here is completed by Richard Nagle, Bill Slattery and first-time County Councillor from Kilrush, Ian Lynch.
The first seven seats in Ennis were filled by James Breen, Johnny Flynn, Pat Daly, Ann Norton, Tom McNamara, Mary Howard and Paul Murphy, but there was great drama over the final Council position.
Clare Colleran Molloy had three votes to spare over Ger O'Halloran when she was first declared elected, but then had a long tense wait through a full re-count before she could celebrate.
Five of the elected representatives in Shannon were returned to their positions – Cathal Crowe, Pat McMahon, PJ Ryan, Gerry Flynn and John Crowe are joined by Mike McKee, the first Sinn Fein member of Clare County Council elected in over 40 years.
The Killaloe count concluded on Saturday night, with poll-topper Joe Cooney joined by Pat Burke, Pat Hayes, Alan O'Callaghan, Tony O'Brien and Michael Begley.
There is now no Labour Councillor in Clare – party member Pascal Fitzgerald lost his seat, as did Fianna Fáil's Brian Meaney and Pat Keane and Fine Gael's Tony Mulqueen, Sean McLoughlin, Oliver Garry and Mayor of Clare Councillor Joe Arkins.
The results mean that at 12 Councillors, Fianna Fáil will be the largest grouping in the new County Council.
Meanwhile, a Clare FM analysis of first preference votes has also shown the party was the most popular amongst voters with a share of 35.7%.
Fine Gael's 31.5% has been translated into 8 seats, while 21.5% of Clare residents gave their Number 1s to independents.
Sinn Fein won 4.2% of the vote, and one seat, while Labour will look to recover after winning no seats, and just 3.1% of the vote.
The remaining 3.9% of the vote went to other political groupings.
Clarecastle Fine Gael TD Joe Carey admits it has been a disappointing election for the party locally and nationally.
