An election to all 37 seats on

Donegal County Council Donegal County Council () is the authority responsible for Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local government in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The ...

took place on 24 May 2019 as part of the

2019 Irish local elections The 2019 Irish local elections were held in all local authorities in Ireland on Friday, 24 May 2019, on the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election and a referendum easing restrictions on divorce. Each local government area is divid ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

was divided into 7

local electoral area A local electoral area (LEA; ) is an electoral area for elections to Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authorities in Ireland. All elections in the Republic of Ireland, elections use the single transferable vote. Republic of Ir ...

s (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the

electoral system An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, nonprofit organizations and inf ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

by means of the

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

(PR-STV).

Boundary changes

Following a recommendation of the 2018 Boundary Committee, the boundaries of the LEAs were altered from which had been used at 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.

Overview

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 () 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 Donegal. The County Board is responsible for prepari ...

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 Kelly (9 February 1978 – 23 June 2019) was an Irish rally driver, businessman, and Fianna Fáil politician from Glenswilly in County Donegal. Known as "Mandy", he won the Donegal International Rally three consecutive times, in 2016, 201 ...

(both for the first time). However, Seamus O Domhnaill – Fianna Fáil's outgoing Cathaoirleach – was a notable casualty, as was former Senator Enda Bonner. 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, who attracted controversy following an RTÉ Investigates programme into Irish councillors.

Boundary changes

Overview

Results by party

Results by local electoral area

Buncrana

Carndonagh

Donegal

Glenties

Letterkenny

Lifford–Stranorlar

Milford

Footnotes

Results by gender

Changes

Co-options

Change in affiliation

Sources

References