An election to

Donegal County Council Donegal County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Dhún na nGall) is the authority responsible for local government in County Donegal, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for hou ...

took place on 24 May 2019 as part of the Irish local elections. 37 councillors were elected for a five-year term of office from 7

local electoral area A local electoral area (LEA; ga, Toghlimistéir Áitiúil) is an electoral area for elections to local authorities in Ireland. All elections use the single transferable vote. The Republic of Ireland is divided into 166 LEAs, with an average ...

s (LEAs) by

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

. Following a recommendation of the 2018 Boundary Committee, the boundaries of the LEAs were altered from those used in the 2014 elections. Its terms of reference required no change in the total number of councillors but set a lower maximum LEA size of seven councillors, whereas Donegal in 2015 had LEAs of 10 and 9 seats. Other changes were necessitated by population shifts revealed by the 2016 census. Fianna Fáil gained an additional seat to reach 12 and also saw a slight increase in their vote share. Anthony Molloy - who captained the

Donegal GAA The Donegal County Board ( ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Coiste Dhún na nGall) or Donegal GAA is one of 32 county boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Ireland, and is responsible for the administration of Gaelic games in County Do ...

team to the

1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 106th staging of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Gaelic Athletic Association's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament. The championship began on 17 May 1992 and ...

- won a seat for the party, as did rally driver

Manus Kelly Manus "Mandy" Kelly (9 February 1978 – 23 June 2019) was an Irish rally driver, businessman, and local politician. As a rally driver, he participated in the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship and won the Donegal International Rally on three con ...

(both for the first time). However, Seamus O Domhnaill - Fianna Fáil's outgoing Cathaoirleach - was a notable casualty, as was former Senator

Enda Bonner Enda Bonner (born October 1949) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and sportsperson. He was a councillor for the Glenties electoral area of Donegal County Council from 1999 to 2019. He was also a Senator from 1997 to 2002. He attempted to wi ...

. Unlike other performances around the State, Sinn Féin actually gained a seat in Donegal; increasing their numbers by 1 to 10 seats while seeing a slight reduction in vote share. Fine Gael retained 6 seats overall, while Independents saw a reduction of 2 seats. One Independent elected was

John O'Donnell John O'Donnell may refer to: Sportsmen * John O'Donnell (baseball), 19th-century Major League Baseball player * John O'Donnell (boxer) (born 1985), Irish boxer * John O'Donnell (Australian footballer) (born 1947), Australian footballer for St Kil ...

, who attracted controversy following an RTÉ Investigates programme into Irish Councillors.

Results by party

Results by local electoral area

Buncrana

Carndonagh

Donegal

Glenties

Letterkenny

Lifford–Stranorlar

Milford

Results by gender

Changes since 2019

*† Immediately after the 2019 local elections, Lifford-Stranorlar Fine Gael Cllr Frank McBrearty Jnr resigned from the party and became an Independent. He claimed he had been bullied and was not made feel welcome by former colleagues in Fine Gael. He then announced he was going to sue the party for post-traumatic stress disorder. *†† On 23 June 2019, Letterkenny Fianna Fáil Cllr Manus Mandy Kelly died in a crash while participating in the Donegal International Rally. On 25 November his father, Donal, was co-opted to fill the vacancy. He subsequently resigned his seat and Manus' brother, Donal, was co-opted to fill the vacancy on 28 September 2020.

Sources

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References

{{2019 Irish local elections 2019 Irish local elections

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...