So as the dust settles on a historic result, who are the winners and losers?
The Losers
Fianna Fáil
The most obvious losers are Fianna Fáil, its candidate and its leader.
This is Fianna Fáil’s worst election result ever. Jim Gavin, though excruciatingly still on the ballot paper on Friday, crashed and burned in the early stages of the campaign after it emerged that he still owed a former tenant, who unfortunately for him happened to be the deputy editor of the Sunday World, €3,000.
But even before that revelation it was clear that Gavin’s campaign was not taking off. His identification and selection – over the objections of a significant portion of his TDs – is almost certainly the greatest misjudgement of Micheál Martin’s leadership. That cannot be without consequences.
It would be overstating the case to say that the result puts Martin’s leadership in immediate jeopardy, though the level of muttering on the subject is likely to increase now that the result is in. But certainly the question of when exactly he is likely to hand over is one that is likely to become asked more common. His authority is substantially damaged.
Politics is a forward-looking business and tends not to dwell on pas
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