The defeat of Sinn Fein TD Padraig Mac Lochlainn was one of the major surprises of the election. The party had been confident of taking a third seat in Donegal but instead was dealt an electoral bloody nose, losing one of its best-known representatives. In 2011, Mac Lochlainn topped the poll in the old Donegal north east constituency with almost a quarter of the vote. This year the party saw its share of the vote fall in a new five-seater constituency. Mac Lochlainn’s defeat put a dent in a story of Sinn Fein gains nationally and sent a shock wave through a party famed for it[...]