Longford #LE24: Chants of “Up the Hag” reverberated around count centre as Hagan tops poll in Longford MD

Shouts of “Up the Hag” reverberated around Edgeworthstown Community Centre as soon as Returning officer, Mary Gouldsbury, announced that Hagan, Gerry (FG) had 1,071 first preference votes in the first count.

With Total Valid Poll was 6,825 and a quota of 854 votes the Killoe man had handsomely exceeded the quota.

Cllr Hagan was one of two Fine Gael councillor elected on the first count. Speaking to the Leader after his election the newly minted councillor was delighted with the achievement.

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“Thanks to the people who came out in their hundreds and voted for me,” he said, “They've put their faith back in me for the next five years and I intend to work every bit as hard and harder for the people of the Longford Municipal area as I've done for the last five years.”

He ascribed the support to his efforts in the previous term: “Hard work, a great sense of community. Local government is about local people after all, local services, community groups. And as a public representative, working with community groups is the key for us all.

“We want to improve the services and we want to improve amenities in our area. And we do this by the vehicle of working with community groups and accessing funding from national government, which we have gotten spades over the last five years,” Cllr Hagan said.