A major surprise in the European elections in the Connacht/Ulster constituency could not be ruled out last night as Fianna Fail's Mr Noel Treacy was out-polled in the first count by Independent candidate Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon.
The other Independent candidate Ms Marian Harkin was also close to outperforming the Fianna Fail Minister of State, polling just 600 votes less than him. The contest was set to end in a very closely-fought battle between these three for the third and last seat in the constituency.
Fianna Fail's Mr Pat "The Cope" Gallagher and Fine Gael's Mr Joe McCartin were set to hold on to their seats in the European parliament.
In the first count, Mr Gallagher topped the poll with 66,055 first preference votes against 63,632 for Mr McCartin.
Dana Rosemary Scallon polled 51,086, while Noel Treacy got 47,933 and Marian Harkin got 47,372 first preference votes.
Mr Sean MacManus of Sinn Fein got nearly double the Labour Party vote, with 20,457, against the 10,522 of newcomer Mr Ger Gibbons. The quota was 80,038.
The second preferences of the votes cast for Mr MacManus and Mr Gibbons were set to be crucial to the final outcome. After the first count announcement, Mr Treacy said he was confident that he would secure enough second preferences among the 42,000 votes of the lowest six candidates to get elected.
However, Mr MacManus, a Sligo-based candidate, said he believed the bulk of his votes were likely to go to Marian Harkin, the western development campaigner who is also based in Sligo. Mr MacManus said he did not believe a significant proportion would go to Dana.
Mr Gibbons said he believed his votes would divide between Joe McCartin, Marian Harkin and Noel Treacy with Dana likely to be fourth in line for them.
In Mr Treacy's favour was the fact that a number of the candidates to be eliminated were from the Galway area, including Mr Gibbons. and Luke "Ming" Flanagan, who got 5,000 first preference votes, although it was questionable as to how many of these a Fianna Fail candidate would get.
The votes of Father Liam Sharkey, who polled 5,334, would be expected to transfer mostly to Dana.
After the first count, Mr Paul Campbell of the Natural Law Party, who got 1,920 votes and Mr Paul Raymond, an Independent Green who got 840 first preferences, were eliminated.
The Labour Party will be very disappointed at this vote, taking just 3.3 per cent of the vote, down from 8.5 per cent in 1994.
The Sinn Fein vote of 6.4 per cent was only marginally better than the 5.99 per cent secured in 1994. Of a total electorate of 528,342, the total valid poll was 320,151 with 12,085 spoiled votes.
Dana said she was "absolutely delighted" with the first count result. She said she "could not predict anything" but was hopeful of a victory.
In this election Fianna Fail had obviously suffered from the loss of popular sitting MEP Mark Killilea, who retired, while the performance of the two Independents surprised everybody.
There was a significantly higher turnout than in the 1994 vote when the quota in Connacht/Ulster was 58,000.
In 1994 Fianna Fail took 42 per cent of the vote, with Pat "The Cope" Gallagher topping the poll with 53,000 first preference votes, and Mark Killilea polling more than 45,000. Fianna Fail on this occasion took just 35 per cent.
In 1994 Fine Gael, running two candidates, took 30 per cent of the vote, with Joe McCartin getting 38,000 first preferences. On this occasion Fine Gael took 19.8 per cent.
There was no Progressive Democrats candidate - in 1994 Bobby Molly polled more than 21,000 votes or 9 per cent.
Throughout the evening few people were prepared to make any predictions at the count centre in Bundoran as it became clear that Noel Treacy would have difficulty holding onto the second Fianna Fail seat.
Dana meanwhile was clearly the one getting the star treatment. Her arrival in the hall at teatime sparked a flurry of activity among radio and television journalists.
Her performance was the clear talking point of the night, with some seasoned politicians saying it would make you wonder about the electorate and question whether years of hard work impressed voters.