Sinn Féin on target for two seats in Westmeath

With two of the three areas tallied in Westmeath, Sinn Féin are the unsurprising recipients of the protest vote, and look like taking a council seat in both Athlone and Mullingar-Kilbeggan.

Paul Hogan (31), a former mayor of the now defunct Athlone Town Council was not a huge surprise, but Sorcha Clarke (35) - a self-employed accountant from Mullingar has surprised a lot of onlookers.

The protest theme continues, with exactly one third of the entire vote in Athlone going to independents, but the former FF councillor Kevin 'Boxer' Moran is taking the majority of this and looks like topping the poll with nearly twice the quota.

Though unlikely to get the by-election seat, Aengus O'Rourke looks like at least getting a consolation seat on the council. Labour are set to lose two sitting councillors in Mullingar-Kilbeggan, while a resurgent Fianna Fail will bag the top three places in this ward.

The most notable loss so far is Cllr Tom Allen (FF) in Athlone. Tom is better known as country and western star TR Dallas, who was most known for his humourous 80s song 'Who shot JR'.

Athlone tally (7-seater):

1. Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran (IND) 21.5%,

2. Tom Farrell (FG) 11.3%

3. Paul Hogan (SF)10.7%

4. John Dolan(FG) 8.2%

5. Frankie Keena (FF) 7.9%

6. Arngus O’Rourke (FF) 7.8%

7. Vinny McCormack (FF) 7.4%

Mullingar-Kilbeggan (6-seater):

1.Paul Daly (FF)15.3%

2. Avril Whitney (FF)13.2%

3. Ken Glynn (FF)9.9%

4. Johnny Penrose (LAB) 9.6%

5. Sorcha Clarke (SF) 9.5%

6. Andrew Duncan (FG) 7.5%