Dublin Central: ‘Emotional’ day for Soc Dems as Greens hail ‘strong’ performance

Social Democrats are beaming after their candidate Daniel Ennis was elected in the Dublin Central by-election.

He beat Sinn Fein’s candidate in the home constituency of party leader Mary Lou McDonald, and Gerard “The Monk” Hutch, who has been described in court by a judge as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation.

Mr Ennis got 4,903 first preference votes, followed by Sinn Fein’s Janice Boylan on 4,348, Green’s Janet Horner on 2,907, and independent Gerard Hutch on 2,817, who was eliminated on the seventh count.

Fine Gael candidate and Dublin mayor Ray McAdam got 2,659 votes, independent Malachy Steenson was on 2,342, People Before Profit’s Eoghan O Ceannabhain on 1,681, Labour’s Ruth O’Dea on 1,454, and Fianna Fail’s John Stephens on 1,049.

As the count continued on Saturday, Mr Ennis extended his lead as he picked up transfers from other candidates, finishing with 12,050 votes, ahead of Boylan on 7,787 by the ninth and final count.

Speaking as he arrived at the count centre earlier on Saturday, where he was warmly congratulated by beaming party colleagues, Mr Ennis said he believed he topped the polls because “we didn’t bend on who we were”.

“It was just listening to people, meeting them where they were, whether they agreed with you or not,” he said.

“I believe in the politics of decency, politics of hope and inclusion, and people wanted that on the doors. They wanted that positive approach, they wanted change, but they wanted positive change.”

He added: “The hard work has paid off, really, it’s reflected what we’ve been hearing on the doors, what I’ve been hearing in kids’ playgrounds when I’m there with my kids on the weekends.”

Asked about Mr Ennis’s success, Holly Cairns said that when she became leader of the party she pledged to be “unashamedly ambitious” about its future.

“To say it’s a great day for the party is an understatement,” she said.

“It’s a testament to the incredible work that Dan has put in and that his campaign team has put in.

“It was a hugely positive campaign, a message of hope and of inclusion, and it really clearly resonated with voters in Dublin Central, and we’re just so immensely proud of him, of Gary, of all of the campaigns in Dublin Central.

“It feels like an emotional day. It’s a really strong message for Dan, and when I stepped in as leader of this party, I said I was unashamedly ambitious about the future of this party.

“To see that more and more voters, when they’re looking for an alternative, are looking to the Social Democrats is just amazing to see.”

Sitting Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central Gary Gannon was asked if he was worried about his seat in the next election.

“No, I want to build a big brilliant party and the Social Democrats are doing that. We need to find big, brilliant people and in Daniel we have that.”

Sinn Fein’s Ms Boylan, who came second in the first count and maintained that position as transfers were allocated, said that she was “very happy” with how the campaign went and said it was a “great” election for them.

Ms McDonald said Sinn Fein was “building politically” and said the trajectory of Irish politics over the past 10 years was one of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael’s decline and the “growth of politics beyond that”.

She said: “Things don’t happen in political life – in my experience and it’s considerable at this stage – in a straight line. Things take, sometimes, detours.”

Green Party candidate Ms Horner, who performed well after the party lost all its seats bar one in the 2024 general election, said they had shown a performance as strong as the 2019 election.

She said: “We knew when we were out on doors, that people wanted to see Greens strongly represented in this constituency again. We’re not going to make it over the line today probably, but we’ve certainly seen that there’s a strong body of support there, I think we’ll see when the transfers come through, there’s a lot of second preference votes in there for us as well.

“I think we’re going to be working very hard between now and whenever the next general election comes up, we know we’ve got a strong message from the electorate that they want to see Greens back.”

Asked about how she outperformed Mr Hutch, she said they had “firmly rejected the type of politics that have been offered” and that had capitalised on real frustrations that people had.

“It is frustrating to see how much of the media narrative that the likes of Hutch captured and I think the narrow stereotype of our wonderful, vibrant and diverse communities that we have in Dublin Central, that is maybe perpetuated as well.”

She said creativity, imagination and positivity were key themes of her campaign.

She added: “I know cycling through the constituency and I’d get car (windows) coming down and I’d get a bunch of children at the back shouting ‘Janet for the planet’ and stuff like that. That level of getting young people and people from all ages excited from what they see from their political candidates is something we should be trying to bring to every constituency across the country.”

Fine Gael by-election candidate and Dublin mayor Mr McAdam arrived at the RDS and said incumbency was his “biggest challenge” as Fine Gael has been in government since 2011.

He said they needed to regroup and prepare for the next election.

“I think the challenge of incumbency is a challenge, I think that is ultimately our biggest challenge, our party has been in government now since 2011 and we could not have left more on the pitch. We absolutely threw everything at it.”

Labour’s Ms O’Dea said she was “satisfied” with her performance and said there was a “strong message” sent to government that they were not delivering.

She said: “We need to unite more, definitely. If we vote left and transfer left, and we do that like we did with the Connolly campaign, we’re a force to be reckoned with.”

Marie Sherlock, a sitting Labour TD in Dublin Central, said that they “heard a lot about Gerard Hutch” during the election campaign, but “his vote has slipped”.

“This playing up of him as a major electoral force to be reckoned with has not proven correct today,” she said.

People Before Profit’s Mr O Ceannabhain said that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are “on the rocks, so the left should commit to not resurrecting them” at the next general election.

Fianna Fail’s Mr Stephens, who was eliminated on the second count, said he went into the election without any councillors and would “love to have the same conversation with you in three years’ time, it will be totally different”.

“We’re not going to be complacent about this, we’re not going to sugarcoat this either, we’re obviously disappointed with the result,” said director of elections for Fianna Fail and Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien.