2011 Dublin West by-election

A Dáil by-election was held in the constituency of Dublin West in Ireland on Thursday, 27 October 2011, to fill a vacancy in the 31st Dáil. It followed the death of Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) Brian Lenihan Jnr on 10 June 2011. The 2011 Irish presidential election and two constitutional referendums were held on the same day. The Labour candidate Patrick Nulty was elected on the fifth count. == Candidates == Thirteen candidates contested the by-election. Four were members of Fingal County Council: David McGuinness of Fianna Fáil, Eithne Loftus of Fine Gael, Patrick Nulty of the Labour Party, and Ruth Coppinger of the Socialist Party. The other party candidates were Paul Donnelly of Sinn Féin, Roderic O'Gorman of the Green Party and Peadar Ó Ceallaigh of Fís Nua. There were six independent candidates: Gary Bermingham, a satirical actor and artist; Benny Cooney, a FÁS employee; Brendan Doris, an architect; Barry Caesar Hunt, a contestant in The Apprentice reality television show in 2010; John Frank Kidd, a retired fire officer; and Jim Tallon, a farmer. Donnelly, McGuinness, Nulty and O'Gorman had all been unsuccessful candidates in this constituency at the general election in February 2011. Bermingham, Cooney, Ó Ceallaigh and Tallon had been candidates in other constituencies at the same election. == Result == A full recount was ordered after only 18 votes separated Socialist Party candidate Ruth Coppinger from Fianna Fáil candidate David McGuinness. After the recount, both McGuinness and Coppinger had the same number of votes in the fourth count. Under electoral law Coppinger was eliminated, for McGuinness had more first-preference votes. It was the first time since the 1982 Galway East by-election that a candidate of a governing party won a by-election, and the first since the 1976 Dublin South-West by-election to have transferred a seat from an opposition party to a government party. The result left Fianna Fáil with no TDs in Dublin city and County. == References ==