Emily Keegan

Well, the trial of the former Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson is due to start today.

Joining me from outside Newry Crown Court is Newstalk reporter Emily Keegan.

Emily, thank you for joining us from outside the court this morning as that trial is expected to begin.

So what will happen today?

And it is expected to be a lengthy trial, isn't it?

And the estimate is four weeks.

OK, just going back to this trial of facts that Eleanor is facing, Eleanor Donaldson.

Can you talk us through what exactly that means?

Just going through the jury selection yesterday, I noticed that the judge said that he wouldn't insult the prospective jurors by asking them if they knew or recognised Geoffrey Donaldson.

Does his profile provide a difficulty or an obstacle in swearing in that jury yesterday?

OK, Emily, so as you said, the prosecution case begins today.

Has the prosecution outlined what their case will be at this stage or are we waiting for that to happen?

Emily, thank you very much.

Emily Keegan there, Newstalk reporter, will be at Newry Crown Court for the day and we'll have plenty of updates on Newstalk as we go through that.

Good morning, Pat.

We've actually just in the last 10 minutes now gotten the results of the fifth count, which is the first count of the day here in Galway West.

And it was the distribution of AN2's Orla Nugent and independent candidate Sheila Garrity's votes after they were eliminated at about half past nine last night.

Noel Thomas of Independent Ireland still very much in the lead here on 11,075 votes now.

That's followed by Fine Gael's Sean Cain who received 219 votes in the fifth count and brought him up to 10,126.

So there are now 949 votes between them.