The victory for Connolly and the extremely low vote for Heather Humphreys is a significant blow to the Fianna Fáil / Fine Gael government. It was a rejection of their meek approach to the genocide in Palestine – watering down the Occupied Territories Bill to a toothless token Bill and doing so under pressure from US big business. It is a setback to their ongoing efforts to remove the Triple Lock and to fall into step with EU militarisation and further integration with NATO.