Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, Maria Walsh and Matt Carthy elected as MEPs

Perhaps the most hotly contested race in Ireland's European elections was decided last night, with Independent Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (pictured), Fine Gael's Maria Walsh and Sinn Fein's Matt Carthy edging out their competition to take the final three seats.

'Ming' Flanagan has become nothing short of an institution in Irish politics, with his instantly recognisable facial hair and his social campaigning - in particular his involvement in trying to bring about legislation for cannabis usage in Ireland.

Maria Walsh, meanwhile, is a new face in Irish politics. The first openly gay winner of the Rose of Tralee, Maria stood on a platform of support for small rural businesses and mental health advocacy in rural areas. Her campaign, however, will forever be remembered for her bizarre appeal to '90s voters, which went semi-viral. In the end, however, her personal appeal carried the day.

Matt Carthy, who was defending the seat he won in 2014, is the party whip in the European Parliament. Despite his win, he's expected to run as the Sinn Féin candidate for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency at the next Irish general election.

The race

Fine Gael's Mairead McGuinness, the party's highest profile MEP, who also serves as the First Vice-President of the European Parliament, won on the first count on Monday.

The race was marked by the green surge of Saoirse McHugh, the presence of controversial former presidential candidate Peter Casey, and some dubious exit polls.

The Green Party's Saoirse McHugh polled over 50,000 first preference votes, but was eliminated from the race on the 11th count. That must have been hard for Saoirse to take, given the extent to which her hopes had been raised by the Red C exit poll, conducted in association with RTÉ and TG4 and broadcast by both stations. Unusually, it was the only exit poll, and as a result, there was nothing else out there to counter-balance any potential errors.

The poll was way off in its predictions, putting Luke 'Ming' Flanagan at a mere 10% and Peter Casey at 7% of first preferences – when, in reality, they got 14.3% and 9.5% respectively. This led many commentators to wonder if the 'shy voter factor' had stopped people from publicly voicing their support for slightly more controversial candidates.

Peter Casey held on right until the end of the race, before finally being eliminated on the 13th count.

The results in this constituency represent particularly good news for Fine Gael, with Maria Walsh having picked up the seat vacated by independent Marian Harkin. Elsewhere, Sinn Féin will likely breathe a sigh of relief that Matt Carthy has held onto his seat, considering the fact that, on this occasion, the party has suffered big losses in both the European elections and the local council elections.