results of the irish general election

I voted for a Fianna Fail candidate called Sean O'Fearghail.
His use of the Irish language form of his name dates from his entry into politics two decades ago.
Before entering public life he was known around here as Johnny Farrell.
I kid you not.
I voted for him because he had himself voted in parliament last year against the illegal Fine Gael Labour Party combo government's legalisation of abortion.
I call this abortion law illegal because the Irish people have twice voted in referendums prohibiting abortion and requiring any future government to hold a plebiscite before legalising it.
The Fine Gael Labour Party action was also illegal from the moral point of view, because Fine Gael had specifically promised prior to the last election not to legalise abortion.
Sean O'Fearghail has never done much speaking out against abortion but he was the closest thing I could find to an honorable, decent, courageous person standing in the constituency.
His running mate at the last election Sean Power who lost his seat, might disagree with me, since at the time he accused Sean O'Fearghail of a dirty tricks campaign, ie sending out a letter to suppporters on the eve of polls purporting to be from party HQ but actually emanating from Sean O'Fearghail HQ, urging ye aforementioned supporters to vote tactically giving preference to Sean O'Fearghail.
Hilarious no.
I met Sean O'Fearghail on one famous occasion during a reception hosted by various politicians in the chamber of Kildare County Council.
I'd just started work with a now defunct newspaper called the Leinster Leader and there was a bit of a speculative buzz around my early reportage.
It didn't last by the way, but on this occasion I was hail fellow well met.
An enthusiastic group of politicians were glad handing me at the gathering.
Sean O'Fearghail called roughly across the room: "Hey you, I want to see you outside."
Somewhat nervously I followed him out the door.
When the door had closed behind us he turned to me and stated mildly: "I just wanted to say you're doing a great job at the newspaper. Your work is really impressive."
His rough greeting and demand that I  leave the room had been solely to impress the other politicians.
So here we are years later.
After all my pillorying of his party Fianna Fail as a kleptocratic quasi fascist crime gang infiltrated by the Rah, and after his recent speech in parliament about Catholic zealots, I don't know who'll be more mortified that I voted for him: him or me.
We'll all just have to get over it.
By the way, in Ireland our system of voting allows us to rank any number of candidates in order of preference.
So I gave a Number Two to an Independent called Declan Crowe on the off chance that he might have some awareness of the sanctity of life.
I live in hope.