Toiréasa Ferris, daughter of Sinn Féin Kerry North TD Martin Ferris, has been elected mayor of Kerry under the terms of a technical arrangement with Fianna Fáil and Independent Fianna Fáil councillors.
Ms Ferris (25) is Kerry's youngest mayor to date and the third woman in the history of the council to hold the chair.
A councillor of two years, she was first co-opted on the resignation of her father with the ending of the dual mandate and last year she was elected in her own right.
Fianna Fáil's Anne McEllistrim was elected vice-chair by the same majority of 14 votes to 12.
Ms Ferris is completing a masters' degree in human rights and criminal justice at Queen's University Belfast, is a graduate of law and European studies at the University of Limerick and is a fluent Spanish and Irish speaker.
Reaching out to youth and minority groupings, equality for the county, tackling the decline of rural communities, and more representation for women, would be among her priorities in the coming year, Ms Ferris said.
In the course of a long and at times emotional address yesterday, she touched on what she said was the cruelty of the State towards her family for their republican ideals.
More than 100 people, including Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald, members of the Ferris family, her grandmother, Rita Hoare from Co Mayo, and those whom she described as her "republican family", packed the council chamber in Tralee.
Representatives of the elderly, ethnic communities, disability groups, youth groups, Dáil na nÓg and the IFA were also there.
Immediately after her election, the new mayor went to the body of the chamber to hug her father, Martin. "While I am a Sinn Féin councillor," she said, "I am first and foremost cathaoirleach of this county, captain of your team."
She said it was humbling to see so many Kerry republicans in the chamber. "While today is a joyous occasion, I'm very conscious of the fact that many of you and members of my family have been through tremendous hardship."
Her uncle Brian and her father Martin had "suffered cruelly at the hands of this State for their beliefs".
Describing her mother Marie as "an incredible woman", who had spent 10 years bringing up six children on a pittance on her own while her father was in Portlaoise prison (he was jailed in the mid- 1980s for his part in the Marita Ann gun-running affair), Ms Ferris said she and her siblings were very proud of their mother.
The children who had spent years travelling to Portlaoise to see their father and being "dragged out of our beds" at 5am and 6am when the Special Branch and Garda came to raid their house, never imagined they would see this day.
Under the deal with Fianna Fáil ironed out after last year's local elections and styled "a technical arrangement", the five-year council term will see three Fianna Fáil mayors, along with one of the Healy-Rae brothers, Michael or Danny (Independent Fianna Fáil) as well as Ms Ferris.
Fine Gael, which has seven members, failed to come to an arrangement which would have secured a Labour/Fine Gael/Sinn Féin and an independent chair during this council.
Warm tributes were paid to outgoing mayor Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fáil).
It is more than 20 years since a woman held the chair of the council. The late Mary O'Donoghue, mother of Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue, held the post in 1982-83.
The mayor of Kerry is entitled to an allowance of €31,000.