# 2019 Sligo County Council election

An election to all 18 seats on Sligo County Council was held on 24 May 2019 as part of the 2019 Irish local elections. County Sligo was divided into 3 local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

## Boundary review

At the 2014 Sligo County Council election, County Sligo was divided into two local electoral areas, both of which breached upper limit of 7 seats in the terms of reference of the 2018 LEA boundary review. Following its recommendations, the boundaries were redrawn to create three LEAs.

## Overview

A total of 35 candidates contested the county's 18 seats, of whom fifteen were outgoing councillors. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael each had nine candidates. Sinn Féin had three, Solidarity/People Before Profit had two, while and one each for the Labour Party, Green Party and Renua. The nine independent candidates included Declan Bree, who was County Sligo's longest serving councillor. Thirteen of the fifteen candidates who were outgoing councillors were re-elected, including Bree who was first elected in 1974 to both the County Council and Sligo Borough Council.
Several seats were decided by very narrow margins, and result was that Fine Gael gained three seats to become the largest party, with six seats. Fianna Fáil lost three seats, and the other group totals were unchanged. The long-serving Bree was re-elected in the Sligo–Strandhill LEA.

## Results by party

| Party | Party | Seats | ± | 1st pref | FPv% | ±% |
| | Fine Gael | 6 | 3 | 10,171 | 30.30 | 5.40 |
| | Fianna Fáil | 5 | 3 | 9,599 | 28.59 | 1.11 |
| | Sinn Féin | 2 | | 2,752 | 8.20 | 2.10 |
| | People Before Profit | 1 | | 1,332 | 3.97 | 1.37 |
| | Inds. 4 Change | 1 | 1 | 1,550 | 4.62 | New |
| | Labour | 0 | | 470 | 1.40 | 2.70 |
| | Renua | 0 | | 315 | 0.94 | New |
| | Green | 0 | | 175 | 0.52 | 0.52 |
| | United Left | 0 | 1 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| | Independent | 3 | | 7,187 | 21.41 | 0.99 |
| Total | Total | 18 | | 33,571 | 100.00 | |

## Results by local electoral area

^ *: Outgoing councillor elected in 2014. ^ †: Outgoing councillor coopted subsequent to the 2014 election.

### Ballymote–Tubbercurry

Ballymote–Tubbercurry: 7 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| | Fianna Fáil | Paul Taylor | 11.80% | 1,886 | 1,900 | 2,076 | | | | | | | |
| | Independent | Joe Queenan | 10.86% | 1,737 | 1,763 | 1,773 | 1,775 | 1,806 | 1,822 | 2,158 | | | |
| | Independent | Michael Clarke | 9.77% | 1,562 | 1,603 | 1,614 | 1,615 | 1,664 | 1,693 | 2,076 | | | |
| | Fine Gael | Gerard Mullaney | 9.53% | 1,523 | 1,551 | 1,556 | 1,557 | 1,565 | 1,635 | 1,747 | 1,798 | 1,819 | 1,853 |
| | Fine Gael | Dara Mulvey | 9.36% | 1,497 | 1,538 | 1,583 | 1,584 | 1,624 | 1,931 | 2,062 | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Martin Baker | 8.96% | 1,432 | 1,472 | 1,510 | 1,521 | 1,535 | 1,793 | 1,821 | 1,869 | 1,895 | 1,902 |
| | Fine Gael | Blair Feeney | 7.54% | 1,206 | 1,219 | 1,221 | 1,221 | 1,227 | 1,241 | | | | |
| | Independent | Willie Gormley | 6.54% | 1,046 | 1,098 | 1,175 | 1,186 | 1,455 | 1,743 | 1,786 | 1,804 | 1,821 | 1,826 |
| | Fianna Fáil | Keith Henry | 6.39% | 1,022 | 1,050 | 1,092 | 1,109 | 1,146 | | | | | |
| | Fine Gael | Martin Connolly | 6.32% | 1,011 | 1,019 | 1,193 | 1,214 | 1,732 | 1,783 | 1,868 | 1,893 | 1,906 | 1,923 |
| | Independent | Barry Gallagher | 5.93% | 948 | 998 | 1,097 | 1,109 | | | | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Romuald Mullarkey | 4.33% | 692 | 699 | | | | | | | | |
| | Sinn Féin | Daniel Gallagher | 2.66% | 425 | | | | | | | | | |
| Electorate: 24,389 Valid: 15,989 Spoilt: 198 Quota: 1,999 Turnout: 16,187 (66.37%) ||||||||||||||
The Fine Gael director of elections made a formal complaint about the large increase in the number of postal votes cast — 252 compared to 131 in the same district in the 2014 election and 20 and 17 in the other two districts in 2019. The ensuing Garda investigation into potential electoral fraud was still ongoing in February 2022.

### Sligo–Drumcliff

Sligo–Drumcliff: 5 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| | Sinn Féin | Thomas Healy | 15.11% | 1,370 | 1,402 | 1,437 | 1,610 | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Dónal Gilroy | 13.87% | 1,257 | 1,279 | 1,322 | 1,435 | 1,450 | 1,534 | |
| | Fine Gael | Thomas Walsh | 13.46% | 1,220 | 1,236 | 1,252 | 1,322 | 1,339 | 1,613 | |
| | Independent | Marie Casserly | 12.94% | 1,173 | 1,211 | 1,250 | 1,460 | 1,504 | 1,688 | |
| | Fine Gael | Tom Fox | 11.45% | 1,038 | 1,049 | 1,060 | 1,112 | 1,116 | 1,320 | 1,375 |
| | Fianna Fáil | Seamus Kilgannon | 10.20% | 925 | 941 | 964 | 1,052 | 1,063 | 1,168 | 1,217 |
| | Fine Gael | Ciara McLoughlin | 9.27% | 840 | 857 | 873 | 926 | 934 | | |
| | People Before Profit | Nigel Gallagher | 4.78% | 433 | 475 | 491 | | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Colm McGurran | 3.66% | 332 | 333 | 348 | | | | |
| | Independent | Amanda Gallagher | 2.84% | 257 | 267 | | | | | |
| | Inds. 4 Change | Corey Whyte | 2.23% | 202 | | | | | | |
| Electorate: 16,154 Valid: 9,065 Spoilt: 127 Quota: 1,511 Turnout: 9,192 (56.9%) |||||||||||

### Sligo–Strandhill

Sligo–Strandhill: 6 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| | Inds. 4 Change | Declan Bree | 15.83% | 1,348 | | | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Tom Macsharry | 12.23% | 1,042 | 1,053 | 1,125 | 1,140 | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Rosaleen O'Grady | 11.87% | 1,011 | 1,016 | 1,057 | 1,069 | 1,145 | 1,217 |
| | Sinn Féin | Chris MacManus | 11.24% | 957 | 967 | 988 | 1,012 | 1,099 | 1,167 |
| | Fine Gael | Blaine Gaffney | 10.81% | 921 | 926 | 958 | 971 | 1,016 | 1,100 |
| | Fine Gael | Sinead Maguire | 10.74% | 915 | 942 | 976 | 984 | 1,022 | 1,203 |
| | People Before Profit | Gino O'Boyle | 10.56% | 899 | 925 | 944 | 976 | 1,061 | 1,164 |
| | Labour | Nessa Cosgrove | 5.52% | 470 | 537 | 567 | 583 | 606 | |
| | Independent | Jim McGarry | 5.45% | 464 | 470 | 495 | 506 | | |
| | Renua | Finbarr Filan | 3.70% | 315 | 320 | | | | |
| | Green | Miranda O'Donnell | 2.05% | 175 | | | | | |
| Electorate: 16,754 Valid: 8,517 Spoilt: 133 Quota: 1,217 Turnout: 8,650 (51.63%) ||||||||||

### Footnotes

* ↑ See change below.

## Results by gender

2019 Sligo County Council election Candidates by gender :
| Gender | Number of candidates | % of candidates | Elected councillors | % of councillors |
| Men | 29 | 87.9% | 15 | 83.3% |
| Women | 4 | 12.1% | 3 | 16.7% |
| TOTAL | 33 | | 18 | |

## Changes after 2019
### Co-options

| Party | Party | Outgoing | LEA | Reason | Date | Co-optee |
| | Sinn Féin | Chris MacManus | Sligo–Strandhill | Replaced Matt Carthy in the European Parliament | March 2020 | Arthur Gibbons |