The long wait has ended for Fianna Fail’s Pat the Cope Gallagher.
The Burtonport man may have known that he was returning to Dail Eireann since the early tallies on Saturday.
But it wasn’t until just before 12.30am in the early hours of this morning that his supporters finally got a chance to lift him aloft in the Aura Leisure Centre.
Pat the Cope Gallagher who was elected on the 15th count in Donegal gets a congratulatory kiss from. wife Ann (North West Newspix)
It took until the fifteenth count and the elimination of Fine Gael’s Nikki Bradley to get him over the line as he reached 13,660 votes.
The 76-year-old told Donegal Daily earlier in the week that when he lost his seat back in February 2020 his political career didn’t end.
“I got my P60 and not my P45,” he laughed.
The next chapter in a fascinating political career begins soon.