Predicting the five Mayo TDs a tricky task, pub lottery shows

THE outcome of an election sweepstake in a Co. Mayo pub highlights the difficulties involved in making an accurate prediction of the final result in the local five-seater.

Of the more than 70 people who took a punt in Coady’s Bar, Castlebar, on the winning five, not one got it absolutely right. Twenty-three got four correct but there was no outright winner. Most punters picked Dillon, Calleary and Rose Conway-Walsh on their slate of winners but it got decidedly tricky after that.

Deciding whether Keira Keogh, Paul Lawless, Lisa Chambers, Mark Duffy, Stephen Kerr, Gerry Murray, Martina Jennings, Patsy O’Brien, Gerry Loftus, Joe Daly, ‘Boxty’ O’Conaill or Chris Maxwell would win proved a conundrum too difficult for the crystal ball gazers.

One punter, who plumped for Donna Sheridan and Michael Kilcoyne, both members of Mayo County Council, to get over the line, must have thought he was predicting the result of the local elections.

Another customer, who also picked high and wide of the mark, opted for Mary Lou McDonald, no less.

For the record, the 23 who got four right were - Padraig Corrigan, Kevin Guthrie, Pat Madden, Jimmy Heneghan, Ger Ralph, Sean Nolan, Maurice O’Malley, Liam Ralph, Donal Geraghty, Charlie Meehan, Diane Moran, John Hopkins, Alan Barrett, Sean Canny, John Moran, Joe Feeney, Gerry Nolan, John Ralph, Fish Cunningham, John Flannery, John Lohan Snr., Mary Morrin and Eamon Walsh. They won €10 each.

The sweepstake, which cost €5 to enter, raised a substantial amount for a local charity.

Having a lottery in Coady’s at election times, be they general or local, is a time-honoured tradition.

Says pub boss Dermot Coady: “We’ve been holding such draws for generations, long before my time here.

“Picking all the winners is notoriously difficult. We also asked customers to predict the five winners of the local elections (last June) in the Castlebar Municipal District but nobody got the full slate spot on either.”