2019 Cavan County Council election

An election to all 18 seats on Cavan County Council took place on 24 May 2019 as part of the 2019 Irish local elections. Councillors were elected for a five-year term of office from three local electoral areas (LEAs) by single transferable vote. The 2018 boundary review committee did not recommend any alteration to the LEAs which had been in place in County Cavan at the 2014 election.^[1][2]

2019 Cavan County Council election

← 2014 24 May 2019 2024 →
18 seats on Cavan County Council
First party Second party Third party   Party Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Sinn Féin Seats won 8 7 1 Seat change 1 3   Fourth party Fifth party   Party Aontú Independent Seats won 1 1 Seat change 1 1
Results by Local Electoral Area

Overview

Sinn Féin lost all but one of its seats. Fianna Fáil gained a seat, to give a total of eight seats. Independent candidate Brendan Fay was elected and became the first Independent councillor in the county since 1999. Fine Gael returned with the same number of seats as at the previous election.

Results by party

Party		Seats	±	1st pref	FPv%	±%
	Fianna Fáil	8	1	12,492	38.92	1.56
	Fine Gael	7		10,712	33.37	3.29
	Sinn Féin	1	3	3,974	12.38	5.79
	Aontú	1	1	2,482	7.73	New
	Labour	0		705	2.20	1.61
	People Before Profit	0		498	1.55	New
	Independent	1	1	1,236	3.85	0.21
Total		18		32,099	100.00

Results by local electoral area

^ *: Outgoing councillor elected in 2014.
^ †: Outgoing councillor coopted subsequent to the 2014 election.

Bailieborough–Cootehill

Bailieborough–Cootehill: 6 seats^[3]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Aontú	Sarah O'Reilly[†]	14.93%	1,704
	Fine Gael	Val Smith[*]	10.07%	1,150	1,158	1,163	1,173	1,263	1,512	1,643
	Fine Gael	Carmel Brady[*]	8.94%	1,021	1,035	1,038	1,064	1,152	1,206	1,505	1,669
	Fianna Fáil	Clifford Kelly[*]	11.94%	1,363	1,365	1,369	1,425	1,448	1,543	1,557	1,611
	Fianna Fáil	Aiden Fitzpatrick	7.93%	905	910	917	1,042	1,101	1,274	1,380	1,502
	Sinn Féin	Paddy McDonald	6.76%	772	782	801	941	980	1,005	1,075	1,500
	Fianna Fáil	Francis McDermott	8.14%	929	930	936	1,009	1,131	1,214	1,302	1,353
	Fianna Fáil	Gerry Murray	6.88%	785	791	794	822	829
	Sinn Féin	Bridget Boyle	6.84%	781	804	807	824	883	916	938
	Fine Gael	John O'Hare	5.79%	661	665	670	699
	Fine Gael	Shirley Hall	5.52%	630	642	652	714	860	880
	Fianna Fáil	P.J. Barry	5.26%	601	606	614
	Labour	Mary Roche	1.00%	114
Electorate: 20,421   Valid: 11,416   Spoilt: 249   Quota: 1,631   Turnout: 11,665 (57.12%)

Ballyjamesduff

Ballyjamesduff: 6 seats^[4]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Fine Gael	Trevor Smith	16.20%	1,826
	Fianna Fáil	Shane P. O'Reilly[*][a]	15.11%	1,703
	Fine Gael	T.P. O'Reilly	13.98%	1,576	1,635
	Fine Gael	Winston Bennett[*]	13.28%	1,497	1,527	1,533	1,544	1,694
	Fianna Fáil	Craig Lovett	11.45%	1,290	1,356	1,389	1,446	1,642
	Fianna Fáil	Philip "The Gunner" Brady[*]	11.78%	1,328	1,339	1,360	1,375	1,489
	Sinn Féin	Noel Connell[*]	7.13%	804	826	840	1,171	1,307
	Aontú	Gráinne McPhillips	6.90%	778	796	808	842
	Sinn Féin	Geraldine Harten	4.16%	469	478	484
Electorate: 20,222   Valid: 11,271   Spoilt: 204   Quota: 1,611   Turnout: 11,475 (56.75%)

Cavan–Belturbet

Cavan–Belturbet: 6 seats^[5]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Fianna Fáil	John Paul Feeley[*]	15.02%	1,414
	Independent	Brendan Fay	13.13%	1,236	1,237	1,241	1,265	1,349
	Fine Gael	Madeleine Argue	13.02%	1,225	1,289	1,294	1,337	1,392
	Fianna Fáil	Patricia Walsh	11.26%	1,060	1,067	1,075	1,113	1,176	1,389
	Fianna Fáil	Seán Smith[*]	11.84%	1,114	1,124	1,150	1,155	1,174	1,244	1,246
	Fine Gael	Peter McVitty[*]	10.14%	954	1,007	1,020	1,027	1,039	1,144	1,159
	Sinn Féin	Damien Brady[*]	7.63%	718	722	729	922	1,006	1,096	1,106
	Labour	Liam van der Spek	6.28%	591	608	611	643	761
	People Before Profit	Emmett Smith	5.29%	498	500	502	567
	Sinn Féin	Daniel Downey[†]	4.57%	430	434	435
	Fine Gael	Seán McKiernan, Jnr.	1.83%	172
Electorate: 18,308   Valid: 9,412   Spoilt: 188   Quota: 1,345   Turnout: 9,600 (52.44%)

Footnotes

1. Change in affiliation after 2019; see below.

Results by gender

2019 Cavan County Council election[6][7] Candidates by gender
Gender	Number of candidates	% of candidates	Elected councillors	% of councillors
Men	24	72.7%	14	77.8%
Women	9	27.3%	4	22.2%
TOTAL	33		18

Changes

Co-options

Party		Outgoing	LEA	Reason	Date	Co-optee
	Fianna Fáil	Seán Smith	Cavan–Belturbet	Death.[8]	14 March 2023	Áine Smith[9]

Changes in Affiliation

Name	LEA	Elected as		New affiliation		Date
Shane P. O'Reilly	Ballyjamesduff		Fianna Fáil		Independent	June 2020[10]
Shane P. O'Reilly	Ballyjamesduff		Independent		Independent Ireland	February 2024[11]