No ID problems for island presiding officer

The poll clerk was briefly taken aback when a man proffered his passport at the polling station at Aphort national school on Arranmore island yesterday.

Proof of identity was not a major issue for presiding officer Mary Gallagher, who, despite being a "blow-in", has lived on the island for 40 years.

Gallagher blew in all those years ago from nearby Innisfree island, where passports were definitely not needed given that there were just six people on the register for yesterday's poll.

The turnout was impressive, with five of the six having done their civic duty before lunchtime.

As is the way of these small close-knit communities, someone on Arranmore could explain that the missing vote on Innisfree could be accounted for by the fact that one lad was away doing exams.

For visitors to Arranmore yesterday there were two giveaways that, contrary to what all the political leaders continued to insist throughout the day, it was the real poll as far as Donegal islanders were concerned. One clue was the unusual sight of a Garda squad car, which arrived on the first ferry yesterday morning.

Dungloe-based Sgt Vincent Muldoon brought two polling boxes with him for the two polling stations at Aphort and Leabarrow schools.

(Some islanders did a visible double take at the sight of a Garda uniform as legend has it that the reason the place is so popular for hen nights and stag parties is the lack of a Garda presence on an island, which boasts seven pubs. Indeed, older people remember Brendan Behan enjoying a few sociable drinks on Arranmore many years ago.)

The other hint that something was afoot was the number of cars festooned with Pat " the Cope" Gallagher and Sinn Féin posters which were touring the scenic roads, loudspeakers blaring, as they made one last attempt to woo the undecided islanders - and ferry anyone who needed a lift to the polling stations.

It was a beautiful day for an election but business was far from brisk at the two national schools. At Leabarrow school, presiding officer Sandra Callaghan, who had also travelled over on an early morning ferry from Burtonport, said there had been a steady trickle of voters, but by mid-afternoon only about 90 out of 334 on the register had cast their votes.

On the other side of the island about 50 out of 179 had voted, and Gallagher was not optimistic about a late surge given that many locals worked in Dublin and Letterkenny and returned to the island only at weekends.

There is now a population of 570 on Arranmore, where the beautiful landscape is dotted with a surprising number of homes, many of them recently built. Tony Gallagher, the recently retired manager of Arranmore Co-op, explained that 10 houses were in the process of being built, a double blessing in that as well as signalling the return of more local families, it has created work for local builders.

In the last four years 28 families have returned from Britain and the US - many from Alaska where they were attracted by jobs in fishing and the oil rigs. Labour's Séamus Rodgers was the only Donegal South West candidate who turned up on Arranmore yesterday, but most of the others had made the trip in recent days.