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Maths and history teacher Pauline Tully (49) was elected on the second count in Cavan-Monaghan, the beneficiary of a massive transfer from her running mate Matt Carthy.
A first-time TD, and mother to two boys, she was a Cavan County Councillor from 1999 to 2012.
She was the victim of a vicious assault on Christmas eve 2014, when her estranged husband attacked her in her home, stabbing her 13 times.
The man, Pearse McCauley, was a senior member of the IRA who was jailed for 14 years for the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996.
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Ms Tully met McCauley while he was in prison for the crime, and he was granted temporary release to marry her in 2003.
During the campaign, a video emerged of one of her campaign vans apparently playing the Wolfe Tones song Celtic Symphony, which contains the line “ooh, ah, up the ‘Ra”. She has suggested that the video may have been faked.
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