Brian Lenihan was quite liked in his constituency and one of the few re-elected and the only in Dublin, its possible he may have gained leadership after Martin and done better.

I genuinely think this is the end of FF. Can FF rebuild after this loss? Who will they run in the seat? Is the seat even safe!

I agree. Hopefully they're finished.

Next up, demolition of their partners in crime, FG.

Laurel and bleedin Hardy...

The second FF candidate in Dublin West, David McGuinness, got 1.47% of the vote and didn't have his expenses paid.
http://electionsireland.org/result.cfm? ... 1&cons=112

Mr. Lenihan was elected with 15.12% of the vote.

While Joe Higgins made a good showing to be elected, I'd say it's between FG and Labour to lose.

As for FF, I had long thought before Mr. Lenihan's illness that there was a split pending in the party, with the urban FFers following him and the country rump being left behind. Now, there is no urban FF and no obvious alternative leader. Michael McGrath is pushing himself forward, but it is difficult to see the party surviving until he is considered leadership candidate enough.

lab and fg both got about 30% in Dub West, Joe Higgins c.17% so I reckon the lab candidate finishing 5th is a shoe in.

It'll be interesting. Hopefully we won't have to wait 18 months for the by-election. No doubt Lenihan wouldn't approve of that!

I expect Labour would be favourite for the seat. FG haven't got any answers (either do Labour) and it's likely that the FG vote will have slipped a bit and that the FF vote will move towards Labour.

My 2 cents.

Edit :- @YRG +1.

Am I being incredibly cynical thinking that FF kept a terminally ill Lenihan on the ticket because they obviously wouldn't have got a seat otherwise and are thus angling for a sympathy vote......in fact they may even put Kebabs forward.......have they warped my mind that much?

Lenny kept himself on the ticket.
He did so because he knew that, were he to drop out, his leadership ambitions would be dead.

Egotistical, self-centred, power-hungry motives.

They will run Con-Con.

Mainly because they have no shame, but also because the sympathy for Brian will make the party think they can capitalize on it.

Didn't work for Shay Brennan, but I agree they have no shame/ I think Kebab's will be their favoured option !

The country needs a centre-right party, be it FG or someone else. I'm not too keen on seeing us go down the Marxist route.

I think we need a whole new set of parties left and right....its no good having just one good party as then there are no options and eventually that party will become corrupted. Best case scenario is that FF cease to exist and FG and Labour get fried at the next election for the inevitable economic ruin that is coming. Maybe Sinn Fein and People before profit will get in
and while they ruin the country new parties will emerge.

That is a long term strategy

The change doesn't happen with the party, the change happens with the voters.
The party with the best policies don't get elected because of the short-sightedness and me-féinism of the electorate.

How do we rid ourselves of the gombeen gene ?

If we are lucky this collapse is causing a gradual change

Yes the country will be like Mad Max 3. Tina Turner will be in charge by then.
But the politics department of Trinity will be wetting themselves because finally there'll be a chance that they'll end up with a neat left/right divide that will agree to what it says in their politics textbooks.