“No seat, ever, in any contest, is an easy seat to win,” the Sinn Féin party leader told reporters at the RDS count centre on Saturday.
It is not unreasonable to expect the party leader to be able to bring in a second seat in their constituency. Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin and Tánaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) Simon Harris have brought in second seats in their constituencies.
Dublin Central is a difficult constituency in its diversity, size and the vast differences in issues for constituents. Some areas are very wealthy, with houses costing over a million euro, but there is also a lot of social housing, especially in north inner city areas.
“Some voters in Dublin Central don’t care too much about the real issues,” said one Sinn Féin source who spent a lot of time canvassing on the ground in the run up to the by-elections.
“Some people complain about flower beds in traffic islands. You walk down the street and then people in the council flats are talking about how there is so much mould and damp that the light doesn’t work in a bedroom, because there is water leaking down through it.”
McDonald’s own vote was so massive in Dublin Central in the 2020 general election that if she had a running mate, they would have likely been elected. Today is a far cry from those glory days.
