A NIECE of an IRA woman who was shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988 was one of Sinn Féin's big winners.
Mairéad Farrell, who shares the same name as her aunt, took a seat in Galway West just months after she failed to win a council seat.
She won the second-highest number of first preference votes with 8,464 - just 58 behind Fianna Fáil veteran Éamon Ó Cuív, a grandson of former Taoiseach and President Éamon de Valera.
Ms Farrell's success marked a huge jump in votes since last year's local elections.
She received just 522 first preference votes in the Galway City east ward in 2019.
Ms Farrell was elected on the eighth count yesterday, along with Mr Ó Cúiv and Independent Noel Grealish.
The 30-year-old said the Republic's severe housing crisis was one of the main issues raised by voters.
"Over the last three weeks it was very, very clear that people were getting more in tune with what was going on nationally and they were looking for something different," she told RTÉ.
"This election was very much about the economics. It was about what people had... little or no disposable income at the end of the month."
Ms Farrell said any party which partners with Sinn Féin in government must stick to the republican party's equality agenda.
"For me it's about a programme for government... that will deliver and implement the policies that we have," she said.
Ms Farrell's Belfast-born father Niall moved to Galway several decades ago and is a prominent member of Galway Alliance Against War.
