Sinn Fein becomes Ireland's second largest parliamentary party

Sinn Fein on Tuesday became Ireland's second largest parliamentary party after winning the popular vote in a weekend election.

With counting completed in the early hours of Tuesday morning Sinn Fein had taken 37 of the 160 seats in the Dail, Ireland's lower house of parliament.

Centre-right party Fianna Fail were only one ahead on 38, whilst Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's Fine Gael party took 35.