Fianna Fáil Councillor Albert Dolan will top the poll in Athenry/Oranmore; tallies indicate that the Monivea man will roar home with 17.34% of first preferences.

But his party colleague Cllr Shelly Herterich Quinn is in danger of losing her seat, finding herself in tenth position on 5.6% of the vote with 94% of boxes tallied.

She will be hopeful that transfers will improve her prospects, but she will be competing with newcomer, Cillian Keane, who Fianna Fáil ran as a third candidate.

Tomás Grealish (Ind), brother of TD for Galway West Noel Grealish, is on course to take the second seat with a 13.76% share of the first preferences.

Fine Gael’s Cllr David Collins will also hold his seat with 13.41% of the first preferences, while Cllr James Charity also looks safe on 9.76%.

It could be a good day in this LEA for Fine Gael, with Peter Feeney, a former councillor, on track to take a seat (8.3%), and Eoghan Gallagher (9.3%) also well in contention.

It will be a battle for that final seventh seat, though, with Louis O’Hara (SF) not far behind on 7.63%.

Keep up to date on the local elections with www.connachttribune.ie and get full analysis in this Thursday’s paper.