Plain clothes detectives, armed gardaí and a film director are among the observers at Dublin's RDS as crime boss Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch is centre of attention - despite not being there

To read the latest news on the Irish election count, please 'There's a lot more guards around,' whispered one of the count staff as she counted Gerard Hutch's more than 3,000 first preference votes. Director Jim Sheridan speaks to the media, during Ireland's general election, at the Royal Dublin Society count centre, in Dublin Despite being one of the most high-profile figures in Irish organised crime for decades, he has never been convicted of serious offences. Gerry did pay more than IR£2m to the Criminal Assets Bureau, and his name is synonymous with one of the deadliest gangland feuds in Irish history A poster of Independent election candidate Gerard Hutch on a poster in Dublin A documentary team working with Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan hovered in the background yesterday to capture his potential arrival at the count centre Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch' who is running for the Dublin Central constituency, campaigning in Dublin Last year, Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch was cleared of murdering David Byrne at a hotel in Dublin in 2016 'I rang him because I'd given him boxing equipment years ago, and he said 'anything you want Jim'. Hutch is running as an independent candidate and with four seats up for grabs, has some high-profile competition, including Fine Gael's Paschal Donohoe and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald who was elected on the third count last night. Hutch is running as an independent candidate and with four seats up for grabs, has some high-profile competition, including Fine Gael's Paschal Donohoe and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald who was elected on the third count last night A member of count staff gets to work at a count centre in ork as counting takes place at Nemo Rangers GAA Club in Cork while papers are gathered in Dublin Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail are expected to group up for another coalition government - but exit polling suggests they will need more support to get over the line Independent 4 Change candidate Clare Daly, who polled poorly in Dublin Central, arrived quietly and said the fact Gerry Hutch did well was an anti-establishment vote that could bring a needed focus on the area.