Irish governing Fine Gael, opposition Social Democrats share by-election spoils

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, May 24 (Reuters) - ‌Ireland's governing centre-right ​Fine Gael ​and the Social Democrats, one of the country's smaller centre-left parties, won two by-elections on Sunday, while the reputed head of a well-known crime ‌family missed out on election again.

The result was a blow to left-wing ⁠Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, which has established itself as one of Ireland's three largest parties and hoped ‌to gain a seat in ‌the Dublin Central area where leader Mary Lou McDonald is a sitting lawmaker.

A poor showing for the other governing coalition party, Fianna Fail, in both by-elections could also ​add to pressure on Prime Minister Micheal Martin from some of his own lawmakers.

The victory in Dublin for the Social Democrats' Daniel Ennis adds to the momentum the ⁠party gained at the last general election 18 months ago when it doubled its number of seats to 11 in ​the 174-seat chamber.

It is now the fourth-largest party in parliament, just over a decade after its formation.

While the outcome suggested the Social Democrats ​won over some of Sinn Fein's progressive voters, ‌the main opposition party also lost some of its traditional working-class vote to increasingly popular right-wing candidates, as it did in 2024.

Gerry Hutch, ⁠who was named by an Irish court in 2023 as the head of a well-known crime family in Ireland, won 11% of the first preference vote to come fourth. Hutch, who ran partly ⁠on an anti-immigrant platform, narrowly missed out on one of the four Dublin Central seats at the ​2024 general election.

Hutch has denied being the leader of a crime gang in media interviews.

Former junior minister Sean Kyne of Fine Gael became only the fourth government party candidate since 1982 to win a ‌by-election. His victory in the western county of Galway retained the coalition's relatively comfortable majority in parliament.

Independent Ireland, a relatively new rural-focused ‌party of the right that was a prominent supporter of a recent wave of public protest ⁠against surging fuel prices, ran Kyne ‌closest.

The results underlined the fractured ​nature of the Irish electorate with four parties from across the political spectrum competing closely for the two seats.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by ‌Nia Williams)

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