Main pic: Supporters commiserate Thomas Pringle after losing the seat he first won in 2011. Pic: Donegal Daily.
Thomas Pringle was magnanimous in defeat after Charlie McConalogue came from behind to overtake him in the fifteenth count to take the fifth and final seat.
Asked where it all went wrong, he said there was nothing more him or his small team could do.
However, the decision of both Fine Gael and Sinn Fein to run candidates in his area, he said, was a major factor.
“The fact that Fine Gael and Sinn Fein ran candidates right next door to me, that made a difference,” he said.
“If you look at my vote in the Donegal Electoral Area, it was down significantly and that’s ultimately what made the difference. My vote in the Lifford-Stranorlar and Inishowen Electoral Areas, and in Letterkenny, was all increased on last time. But that’s the nature of politics and that’s the way political parties do their business, so that’s the reality. Also the Redress candidate (Charles Ward) was very transfer friendly whereas normally in any race here, I’ve been the one that’s been transfer friendly and benefited from that too.”
Pringle will no longer be making the trip down to the Dáil for the first time since he was elected in 2011.
“It will probably take a wee while to sink in, but the reality is that every political career ends in failure,” he said.
However, when asked whether or not he would re-enter politics, he replied: “Whether this political career has ended is another question. We will see what happens, but it’s too early to be talking about that. I’ll take some time to myself and take a bit of a breather over the next couple of days and see where it goes from there.”
Despite receiving over 2,100 of Noel Jordan’s (SF) transfers in the second last count, the Killybegs man accepted Nikki Bradley’s (FG) distribution following the final count would be enough to get McConalogue over the line.
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