AFTER an afternoon of twists and turns, Charlie McConalogue has retained his seat in Dáil Éireann.
McConalogue had just 358 to spare on party colleague Pat The Cope Gallagher, with the veteran west Donegal man losing his seat after an intense day of counting.
McConalogue suffered a heavy blow in the vote in his Inishowen heartland this weekend, but the transfers of Independent candidate John O’Donnell proved key in McConalogue retaining his seat.
McConalogue took 1,162 of O’Donnell’s transfers with only 928 going to Gallagher, seeing the Inishowen man go to Leinster House for a third term
The 42-year-old from Gleneely has been a TD since 2011 when, following the retirement of James McDaid and Niall Blaney’s departure from politics, he was the sole Fianna Fáil candidate in Donegal North-East.
Four years ago, in 2016, McConalogue topped the pole in the new five-seater Donegal constituency, when he took 12,533 first preference votes.
McConalogue was elected on the first count in 2016, but faced a fight from the outset to retain his seat here.
Across Inishowen, McConalogue – who served the last term as the Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Agriculture, Food and The Marine – showed a drop of just over 35 per cent.
While he polled 5,080 first preferences, he suffered from a surge from Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, who took 7,306 votes out of Inishowen.
Those figures ensured that he was in a dogfight to the finish but in the end, the scrap saw him edge out Gallagher.
