A lovely day in Dublin.And it belonged to the disgracefully well-behaved Social Democrats. Early in the afternoon, outside the entrance to the count centre, there were high hopes for an atypical display of tribal buck-leppin’ when party leader Holly Cairns and her colleagues started fishing out breakables like spectacles and phones from their pockets in advance of their big entrance with winning candidate Daniel Ennis.An extremely excited welcoming party was waiting to greet them.They had a lot to cheer about and they did it in terrific good spirits, but without any of the choreographed mayhem sometimes seen at these party political showpieces.The Soc Dems had pulled off a milestone victory in the Dublin Central byelection, bagging a second seat in a single constituency for the first time and swapping places with political lookalikes Labour to move behind Sinn Féin in the Dáil Opposition pecking order.Election experts scrutinised the tallied ballots and called a winner by midmorning, but it took forever to get the final result. By then, Ennis had enjoyed an extended lap of honour in the RDS and toddled off for a few hours to have his dinner before returning later in the night to hear official confirmation that he is now a TD.At this stage, the heavyweight also-rans he defeated had long made their excuses and left.[ Dublin Central: Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats elected after ninth countOpens in new window ]As these occasions go, Saturday’s decider was one of the most laid back and relaxed election counts seen in the RDS. Or perhaps the event simply paled in comparison to the last one in Dublin Central, when moneybags gangland criminal Gerry Hutch basked in the centre of a mortifying media scrum, swaggering around the RDS trying to find the count he almost won before scuttling off to the luxury confines of a nearby five-star hotel.He was in this election, too – living proof that sequels are seldom as good as the original.Would he turn up again? If nothing else, it would relieve the tedium. We were told some of “his people” were in the count centre. Perhaps waiting to tip him off if the crowd in the cavernous hall ever got big enough to satisfy his ego.That was never going to happen.Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan was the closest contender Ennis faced, but with him ahead on the first count and certain to mop up far more transfers, party leader Mary Lou McDonald’s hopes of bringing in a second TD in her home constituency all but evaporated. Yes, it was numerically possible, but the downcast demeanour of party workers told the true story. Sinn Féin councillor Janice Boylan and party leader Mary Lou McDonald at the count centre in Dublin's RDS. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times