Mary Lou McDonald is the chief mourner at RDS as local elections throw up an unexpected result

The flags came out in the late afternoon. The largest one by far unfurled by supporters of anti-immigrant campaigner Malachy Steenson.

Eating the Shinners’ dinner. Strange times, unfamiliar scenes at the RDS.

Since when has Mary Lou McDonald entered the hall in the middle of an election count without a noisy scrum of jubilant supporters and a thicket of waving Tricolours to speed her path to the microphones? This was unfamiliar territory for the Sinn Féin leader.

At lunchtime, a group of Dáil colleagues waited for her under the awning outside the Simmonscourt building. Uncharacteristically subdued.

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Mary Lou stepped from a large black car and embraced them, one by one. The chief mourner had arrived.

Senator Lynn Boylan, the party’s European election candidate, was not among that group. Until the ballot boxes opened on Saturday and the tallies began totting up, she was considered a cert for a seat. Now, people weren’t so sure.

Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews and Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty appeared to be home and dry. But not Lynn.

There was no Mary Lou walkabout. The Sinn Féin contingent didn’t hang about.

Radio host Niall Boylan was keeping his name up in lights. He was the most high-profile candidate during the day, clearly enjoying the experience and keeping a close eye on the count, where he was doing very well. “People know me and they think I’m a name they can trust. I’m the guy on the radio, a brand.”

He was with his campaign manager and friend Sarah Ryan, who is no stranger to European election counts. Her father is Eoin Ryan, a former Fianna Fáil MEP.

Contrast this to the scene later in the afternoon when Taoiseach Simon Harris showed up to support the Fine Gael candidate. When he stood on the same spot surrounded by Oireachtas colleagues, Regina Doherty was glued to his side.

The grim faces of the party stalwarts behind Mary Lou said it all

Then he embarked on a lightning tour of the count centre, shaking hands with everyone and thanking them for their hard work. Then he posed for photographs with Order of Malta volunteers and thanked them for their service.

At a Dublin European election count devoid of atmosphere because a result couldn’t be announced until the 10pm close of polls in Europe, Sunday’s tale of two parties was the standout story of the day. And it came with an ending neither was expecting.

It was no different at the local election counts over on the Merrion Road side of the RDS complex where a shocked Sinn Féin endured a punishment vote at the hands of electors they would have ordinarily relied upon for support.

The grim faces of the party stalwarts behind Mary Lou said it all. Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Daithi Doolin, Chris Andrews, Denise Mitchell, Dessie Ellis and Louise O’Reilly had little to smile about.

“It has not been our day but we will have our day … we clearly have lessons to learn,” she said. “We’ve literally been on thousands, probably tens of thousands of doorsteps.”

Sure, what more can they do after that?

“At this point in time I want to listen to people.”

The Taoiseach’s car drew up to the kerb. Simon leapt out and into Paschal’s arms and everyone tumbled happily inside

It was late in the afternoon when a group of Fine Gael TDs and freshly elected councillors gathered at the same spot under the awning to await Simon Harris. They were in great form and their mood was greatly enhanced by the joyous entrance of Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe.

He barrelled up the approach road with Cllr Ray McAdam, who had just topped the poll in Mary Lou’s home patch of Dublin’s north inner city.

The good news kept coming. “Her own back garden, literally,” gasped one Fine Gael supporter when he saw the figures for Cabra-Glasnevin. “Two seats! Cabrafadabra!”

Paschal was en fete. His colleagues cheered him as he approached.

Candidate Regina was waiting, still wearing her white trainers. When it’s all over, she’ll have to be cut out of those runners.

The Taoiseach’s car drew up to the kerb. Simon leapt out and into Paschal’s arms and everyone tumbled happily inside.

“Sixty-one days in the job now,” as he keeps reminding people.

“Is he dipping the fleece?” wondered an intrigued onlooker.

What?

“You know – dying his hair. He’s gone very grey all of a sudden.”

Outgoing MEP Frances Fitzgerald barrelled in wearing a striking salmon pink trouser suit. She’ll probably have to pass it on to Regina now.

The Taoiseach conducted his media briefing with Regina on one shoulder, Ray McAdam behind the other and Paschal giggling like a two year old on the edge of the scrum. He spoke at great speed at great length, hardly pausing for breath.

A la Nina Carberry, Regina didn’t say a word.

The Taoiseach said all the usual stuff: job of work to do, budget to get out, position on election date unchanged…”

Nobody believed him as the mutterings about an early run to the country by the Government intensified.

One senior Fine Gael politician noted how governments have called elections before on the strength of giveaway budgets only for the electorate to astound them with ingratitude. “Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Holding out the promise of a giveaway budget would be more effective.”

In the background for the cock-a-hoop Blueshirts was an emerging hero – former taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Party politicians are attributing their jump in the polls and unexpected success in these elections to the advent of the energetic Harris. And he is only in his new job thanks to Varadkar’s surprise decision earlier this to step down.

As it turned out in this weekend when the far-right challenge largely failed to fire, the bellowing Great Replacement brigade were beaten off the park by the Great Resignation beneficiaries, disproving the adage that the squeaky wheel gets the most oil.

But there were some who succeeded in the local elections, such as the aforementioned Steenson in Dublin’s north inner city and Gavin Pepper in Ballymun-Finglas. Pepper posed in front of a big “Erin go Bragh” flag when he was elected.

Simon Harris, meanwhile, did his tour of the count staff surrounded by delighted colleagues. Senator Barry Ward shadowed him at all times with his one-year-old infant Robin strapped to his chest in case the Taoiseach needed an emergency baby to kiss.

As he was on his way out, Harris donned a pair of earphones and did an impromptu interview for The Irish Times’s rip-roaring Politics Podcast. He then went on to RTÉ for the six o’clock news and was then due out in Greystones before a planned return to the RDS for 10pm.

“Independents seem to have held their own in many places but the story here, I don’t think, is a surge in Independents. I think it’s the absolute collapse in support for Sinn Féin,” he said.

Not that they are taking any pleasure in it. They shouldn’t.

The unofficial campaign for the next general election has already begun.

Senior hurling.

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