Mary's Gone, Thomas & Pearse have Arrived ...

Mary Couglan is reported to have lost her seat in the Dáil, and the Green Party
http://www.breakingnews.ie/election/news/coughlan-loses-seat-as-fine-gael-move-closer-to-government-495175.html

Outgoing Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has become the biggest name to lose her seat in the General Election ...

Fianna Fáil is in meltdown, the party could have just 22 or 23 seats, and just one in the capital in outgoing Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

The Tánaiste is the most high-profile casualty, but other political dynasties are about to come to an end - the names Haughey, Andrews, and Hanafin will be gone.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny will not make an overall majority, but a handful of final seats could decide whether he needs Labour or can try and cut a deal with Independents.
...
But the Greens will be wiped out since none of the party's outgoing TD's or candidates will make the cut.

The Irish Times has more coverage, with a breakdown of the voting coverage:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0226/breaking55.html

As the counters began distributing Ms Coughlan's transfers from her vote of 5,655 the final battle appeared to be between Mr Ó Domhnaill with 5,724 votes and Mr Pringle on 9,139 votes. While Ms Coughlan was expected to transfer well to her running mate the advantage decidedly was with Mr Pringle.

He did not reach the quota but the Killybegs man was elected with 1,175 votes, while Mr Ó Domhnaill with 8,834 votes lost out.

With the final voting tallies of the 3 seats in Donegal South West going to:

• Pearse Doherty with 14,262 votes.
• Dinny McGinley with 8,589 votes.
• Thomas Pringle with 5,845 votes.

In other election news, Gerry Adams the election he fought in Louth:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/elections/latest-news/gerry-adams-secures-seat-in-louth-2557817.html

As with anything else, we'll just have to wait and see what these results mean for Donegal AND the country. Also, interestingly enough Mary has a Twitter page which hasn't been updated since 2009:
http://twitter.com/marycoughlan

Original Posting at Donegal Friends.