DUNDALK’S FREE NEWSPAPER Special day at Monastery school Page 17
Castle Players return to An Tain Page 8
Their day has come
Hole in one delight for Caolan Page 4
Wednesday, 12th February, 2020. Vol. 13, Issue 7 • 63 Clanbrassil Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth Tel: 042 9320888. Fax: 042 9329676. Email: editorial@dundalkleader.com; advertising@dundalkleader.com
By Paul Byrne
Two days of high drama at the count centre in the Carnbeg hotel ended with four men and one woman still standing as Imelda Munster, Ruairi O Murchú, Ged Nash, Fergus O’Dowd and Peter Fitzpatrick were elected to the 33rd Dáil. The Sinn Fein duo of Imelda Munster and Ruairi O Murchú had the luxury of sitting back and watching the drama unfold from afar after they were both elected on the first count. It was an astonishing result for Sinn Fein locally which reflected their success nationally as Munster topped the poll with a
massive 17,203 first preference votes. Her running mate Ruairí O Murchú who was only co-opted into Louth County Council at the tail end of 2017 was also elected after the first count with a total of 12,491. Both totals comfortably surpassed the quotas of 11,778. The vote for the Sinn Fein pair means that they polled more votes than the next five candidates put together. In complete contrast to the ease in which the Sinn Fein duo gained their seats the race for the remaining three was hugely dramatic with the outcome in the balance right up until 5pm on Monday. Ruairí Ó Murchú and Imelda Munster celebrate their election See pages 2, 9 &16
Storm Ciara wreaks havoc with local sporting fixtures By Paul Byrne
Storm Ciara hit hard in many areas around Louth over the weekend with reports of flooding and storm damage in Blackrock, the Fairgreen Road in Dundalk and coastal areas around Cooley and Carlingford. High winds and heavy rain battered the country with Met Eireann issuing an orange status warning for the whole country between 5am Sunday morning and Midday. Full Story Page 14