Malone bows out as Banotti tops poll for Fine Gael

A sign outside the RDS said it was a "Woman's World".

It was only an advertisement for a show held over the weekend; but if you had seen the 35,000 female athletes who streamed past the showgrounds in the mid-afternoon, wreaking havoc with traffic, you might have agreed with the sentiment.

You'd have agreed too if you saw the grin on the face of Mary Banotti inside, who breasted the winning tape on the first count to hold her Dublin Euro seat comfortably. Or the relaxed smile of Patricia McKenna who, having started the weekend as a mere hopeful for the fourth seat, produced a blinding late sprint last night to take joint-second.

But then there was Bernie Malone. Labour's sitting MEP arrived at the count centre last night, looking like a women whose world had just fallen in. A conspicuous absentee all day as the counts confirmed what the tallies had foretold, she turned up about an hour before the declaration and announced with tears in her eyes that, as of July 1st, she would be "unemployed".

It was too early to say where her future lay, but politics was her life, she said. She insisted she wasn't bitter and, contrary to what her accusers might say, she wasn't a "whinger" either.

But then she was gone again, although not before taking a swipe at the "ludicrous" dual mandate system, and another at RTE.

You couldn't help feeling some sympathy. Up to her arrival, the day's proceedings had recalled the horrors of 1997's week-long recount in Dublin South East - held in the same hall - when several onlookers died of boredom.

The leaders in the mini-marathon had long passed before the first count leaked out in the late afternoon. And although the women at the back of the field were walking by then, they were still moving a lot faster than events inside.

Ms McKenna's late charge added some interest as the evening wore on.

The Green MEP had been laid low by a stomach bug on Saturday, after a dodgy Chinese on Friday night. But yesterday she was beaming with well-being, and she beamed brighter with every passing count; while Fianna Fail's Ben Briscoe and Fine Gael's Jim Mitchell battled with the stomach cramps of disappointed hope.

Niall Andrews held his seat for Fianna Fail and Proinsias De Rossa exchanged places with Ms Malone, taking the last seat just before 10 p.m.; while, a little earlier, when the official first-count announcement finally came, the Sinn Fein contingent raised raucous cheers for Sean Crowe's performance, having waited since early morning for that moment.

But on a day that belonged to women, happy or sad, even Niall Andrews' triumph was upstaged, thanks to the attention-seeking arrival for the declaration of his 10-week-old granddaughter, Siobhra.