High-profile farmer candidates had generally disappointing results in local elections across the country.

One of the most notable candidates was recent ICSA president Dermot Kelleher, who failed to take a seat for Independent Ireland in the Macroom area. Kelleher was squeezed out in one of the most traditional electoral areas in the country, where Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael shared five of the six seats, with a Creed and a Moynihan among their ranks.

Kevin Comiskey, who resigned from the IFA sheep chairmanship to contest a seat in Manorhamilton for Fine Gael, also lost out, with Fine Gael failing to take any of the six seats on offer. In Mayo, Pat Chambers also stood for Fine Gael having stepped away from the IFA’s hill committee, but failed to take a seat in Belmullet.

Mark Hackett failed to hold onto the seat his wife Minister of State Pippa Hackett originally won five years ago. Having been co-opted following Pippa’s appointment to the Seanad, and into government, the Green Party’s candidate in Edenderry only got 270 votes and was eliminated early on.

Their son Charlie, only 20, suffered a baptism of fire in electoral politics when standing in the Graiguecullen/Portarlington electoral area in Laois, and also failed to be elected.

Another young farming candidate in Kilkenny Maria Wall, fell short of a quota and a seat for Fianna Fáil in the Piltown area. In contrast, fellow farmer Mary Hilda Cavanagh was elected on the first count for Fine Gael in Castlecomer. It was her 10th time to be elected, 50 years after first putting herself before the electorate, and she is Ireland’s longest serving county councillor.

The Farmers Alliance failed to get anyone on the ballot, but two of the candidates who were announced as standing for them did contest the election as independents. Neither Pam O’Loughlin in Ennistymon, Clare, or Michael McManus in Carrick-on Shannon, Leitrim, featured in the shake up for a seat.

Read a comprehensive round-up of all farming candidates here.