Mayo

Places

People

Mayo (given name)

Mayo is the given name of:

Mayo (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Mayo is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies (Teachtaí Dála, commonly known as TDs). The method of election is the single transferable vote form of proportional representation (PR-STV).

History and boundaries

The constituency was created by combining the former constituencies of Mayo East and Mayo West, and used for the first time at the 1997 general election. It spans the entire area of County Mayo. This area includes Castlebar, Westport and Ballina. Mayo is the largest Dáil constituency in Ireland by area.

At the 2011 general election, this was the constituency of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who subsequently became Taoiseach. Fine Gael won four out of five seats in Mayo at that election. This was the first time in the modern era that any party won four seats in a Dáil Éireann constituency; the last such time was in the era of six- and seven-seat constituencies. It was the first time that any party won four seats in any five-seat Dáíl Éireann constituency. At the 2002 general election Fine Gael suffered its worst electoral performance ever, losing 23 seats nationally, a figure larger than expected and with its overall vote down 5%. Kenny himself came close to losing his seat and even went so far as to prepare a concession speech. In the end he won the third seat in the five-seat constituency.