2019 Sligo County Council election

An election to all 18 seats on Sligo County Council was held on 24 May 2019 as part of the 2019 Irish local elections. County Sligo was divided into 3 local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

2019 Sligo County Council election

← 2014 24 May 2019 2024 →
All 18 seats on Sligo County Council 10 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Seats won 6 5 2 Seat change 3 3   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party People Before Profit Inds. 4 Change Independent Seats won 1 1 3 Seat change 1
Results by local electoral area

Boundary review

At the 2014 Sligo County Council election, County Sligo was divided into two local electoral areas, both of which breached upper limit of 7 seats in the terms of reference of the 2018 LEA boundary review. Following its recommendations, the boundaries were redrawn to create three LEAs.^[1][2]

Overview

A total of 35 candidates contested the county's 18 seats,^[3] of whom fifteen were outgoing councillors.^[4] Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael each had nine candidates. Sinn Féin had three, Solidarity/People Before Profit had two, while and one each for the Labour Party, Green Party and Renua. The nine independent candidates included Declan Bree, who was County Sligo's longest serving councillor. Thirteen of the fifteen candidates who were outgoing councillors were re-elected,^[4] including Bree who was first elected in 1974 to both the County Council and Sligo Borough Council.^[3]

Several seats were decided by very narrow margins, and result was that Fine Gael gained three seats to become the largest party, with six seats. Fianna Fáil lost three seats, and the other group totals were unchanged.^[5] The long-serving Bree was re-elected in the Sligo–Strandhill LEA.^[6]

Results by party

Party		Seats	±	1st pref	FPv%	±%
	Fine Gael	6	3	10,171	30.30	5.40
	Fianna Fáil	5	3	9,599	28.59	1.11
	Sinn Féin	2		2,752	8.20	2.10
	People Before Profit	1		1,332	3.97	1.37
	Inds. 4 Change	1	1	1,550	4.62	New
	Labour	0		470	1.40	2.70
	Renua	0		315	0.94	New
	Green	0		175	0.52	0.52
	United Left	0	1	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Independent	3		7,187	21.41	0.99
Total		18		33,571	100.00

Results by local electoral area

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

Ballymote–Tubbercurry

Ballymote–Tubbercurry: 7 seats^[7][8]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Fianna Fáil	Paul Taylor[*]	11.80%	1,886	1,900	2,076
	Independent	Joe Queenan[*]	10.86%	1,737	1,763	1,773	1,775	1,806	1,822	2,158
	Independent	Michael Clarke[*]	9.77%	1,562	1,603	1,614	1,615	1,664	1,693	2,076
	Fine Gael	Gerard Mullaney	9.53%	1,523	1,551	1,556	1,557	1,565	1,635	1,747	1,798	1,819	1,853
	Fine Gael	Dara Mulvey[*]	9.36%	1,497	1,538	1,583	1,584	1,624	1,931	2,062
	Fianna Fáil	Martin Baker[*]	8.96%	1,432	1,472	1,510	1,521	1,535	1,793	1,821	1,869	1,895	1,902
	Fine Gael	Blair Feeney	7.54%	1,206	1,219	1,221	1,221	1,227	1,241
	Independent	Willie Gormley	6.54%	1,046	1,098	1,175	1,186	1,455	1,743	1,786	1,804	1,821	1,826
	Fianna Fáil	Keith Henry[†]	6.39%	1,022	1,050	1,092	1,109	1,146
	Fine Gael	Martin Connolly	6.32%	1,011	1,019	1,193	1,214	1,732	1,783	1,868	1,893	1,906	1,923
	Independent	Barry Gallagher	5.93%	948	998	1,097	1,109
	Fianna Fáil	Romuald Mullarkey	4.33%	692	699
	Sinn Féin	Daniel Gallagher	2.66%	425
Electorate: 24,389   Valid: 15,989   Spoilt: 198   Quota: 1,999   Turnout: 16,187 (66.37%)

The Fine Gael director of elections made a formal complaint about the large increase in the number of postal votes cast — 252 compared to 131 in the same district in the 2014 election and 20 and 17 in the other two districts in 2019.^[9] The ensuing Garda investigation into potential electoral fraud was still ongoing in February 2022.^[10]

Sligo–Drumcliff

Sligo–Drumcliff: 5 seats^[11][12]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Sinn Féin	Thomas Healy[*]	15.11%	1,370	1,402	1,437	1,610
	Fianna Fáil	Dónal Gilroy	13.87%	1,257	1,279	1,322	1,435	1,450	1,534
	Fine Gael	Thomas Walsh	13.46%	1,220	1,236	1,252	1,322	1,339	1,613
	Independent	Marie Casserly[*]	12.94%	1,173	1,211	1,250	1,460	1,504	1,688
	Fine Gael	Tom Fox	11.45%	1,038	1,049	1,060	1,112	1,116	1,320	1,375
	Fianna Fáil	Seamus Kilgannon[*]	10.20%	925	941	964	1,052	1,063	1,168	1,217
	Fine Gael	Ciara McLoughlin	9.27%	840	857	873	926	934
	People Before Profit	Nigel Gallagher	4.78%	433	475	491
	Fianna Fáil	Colm McGurran	3.66%	332	333	348
	Independent	Amanda Gallagher	2.84%	257	267
	Inds. 4 Change	Corey Whyte	2.23%	202
Electorate: 16,154   Valid: 9,065   Spoilt: 127   Quota: 1,511   Turnout: 9,192 (56.9%)

Sligo–Strandhill

Sligo–Strandhill: 6 seats^[6][13]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Inds. 4 Change	Declan Bree[*]	15.83%	1,348
	Fianna Fáil	Tom Macsharry[*]	12.23%	1,042	1,053	1,125	1,140
	Fianna Fáil	Rosaleen O'Grady[*]	11.87%	1,011	1,016	1,057	1,069	1,145	1,217
	Sinn Féin	Chris MacManus[†][a]	11.24%	957	967	988	1,012	1,099	1,167
	Fine Gael	Blaine Gaffney	10.81%	921	926	958	971	1,016	1,100
	Fine Gael	Sinead Maguire[*]	10.74%	915	942	976	984	1,022	1,203
	People Before Profit	Gino O'Boyle[†]	10.56%	899	925	944	976	1,061	1,164
	Labour	Nessa Cosgrove	5.52%	470	537	567	583	606
	Independent	Jim McGarry	5.45%	464	470	495	506
	Renua	Finbarr Filan	3.70%	315	320
	Green	Miranda O'Donnell	2.05%	175
Electorate: 16,754   Valid: 8,517   Spoilt: 133   Quota: 1,217   Turnout: 8,650 (51.63%)

Footnotes

1. See change below.

Results by gender

2019 Sligo County Council election[5][14] Candidates by gender
Gender	Number of candidates	% of candidates	Elected councillors	% of councillors
Men	29	87.9%	15	83.3%
Women	4	12.1%	3	16.7%
TOTAL	33		18

Changes after 2019

Co-options

Party		Outgoing	LEA	Reason	Date	Co-optee
	Sinn Féin	Chris MacManus	Sligo–Strandhill	Replaced Matt Carthy in the European Parliament	March 2020	Arthur Gibbons