THE people of the Republic of Ireland will awake today to a historic new reality after a General Election.

Exit polls and early results have shown a massive surge in support for Sinn Fein, the main left-of-centre party which campaigns for Irish reunification.

As the name of each newly elected Teachta Dala, – TD or Deputy to the Dail, and equivalent to an MP – was announced yesterday afternoon, it confirmed the trend indicated by the exit polls that Sinn Fein had received a hugely increased vote compared to the two parties which have shared Irish governance between them for decades, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

The exit poll predicted the three main parties would be neck and neck in the final count of seats, but early results showed that Sinn Fein might even be the largest party which would mean they would get the first chance to form a coalition government.

READ MORE: Early vote tallies show Irish election result on a knife-edge

Sinn Fein stood on a radical manifesto pledging to tackle Ireland’s chronic housing shortage and its associated problems of homelessness and high rents, while promising to return the state pension age from 67 to 65. Their pledge to work for Irish unity through a Unity Referendum is also a popular policy.

Traditional opponents Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have both said they will not work with Sinn Fein because of its past associations with the IRA and its leftist economic policies.

After comfortably coming first in her Dublin Central constituency, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald warned her party’s opponents not to leave her and her party out of government.

She said that putting aside their long-held differences and taking power would be “fundamentally undemocratic” after Sinn Fein won the support of “around a quarter of the electorate”.

McDonald added: “The political establishment, including Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, are in a state of denial, they’re still not listening to what the people want.”

The 33rd Dail will have 160 members elected from 39 constituencies in a proportional representation system that saw 531 candidates stand. Sean O Fearghail of Fianna Fail is the Ceann Comhairle, the Speaker, of the Dail Eireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of Ireland, and was automatically elected leaving 159 seats to be contested.

It was a sign of the massive changes that the Fine Gael Taoiseach – equivalent to the Prime Minister – Leo Varadkar TD, could not even come first in his own constituency of Dublin West where Sinn Fein’s Paul Donnelly was elected on the first count. Varadkar did not even make it on the second count but as The National went to press he was predicted to finally get over the line.

The humiliation of Varadkar and his government was clear from the first results. The first TD to be elected was Sinn Fein’s Donnchadh O Laoghaire who topped the poll in Cork South Central ahead of Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and Fine Gael minister Simon Coveney.

O Laoghaire said: “I’m delighted, absolutely delighted, it’s a huge mandate that we’ve got. We haven’t expected this kind of vote but when you see this is replicated across the state, there is an enormous appetite for change.

“There are thousands of young people out there who don’t have any prospect of having a home of their own, and for them and countless others, they saw in our policies a radical alternative, and they voted for it in numbers, true in Cork and across the state.”

Earlier in the day, Varadkar commented: “It seems that we have now a three-party system and that’s going to make forming a government quite difficult.”

Asked if he would be picking up the phone to McDonald, he replied “No” and said it could be months for a government to be formed.