Three women have been elected to represent Northern Ireland in the European Parliament. The pro-Remain Alliance Party won a seat for the first time after hugely increasing its vote in the NI poll. Its leader Naomi Long collected 170,370 votes - 115,000 more than her party received in the 2014 European election. Diane Dodds of the pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Martina Anderson of pro-EU Sinn Féin both retained their seats. Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar hailed Mrs Long's victory as a historic, pro-European vote which would be "heard across the continent". Her vote share was the best national showing for the cross-community Alliance Party, which is not aligned to Northern Ireland's traditional Catholic or Protestant voting blocs. It comes after Alliance's strong performance in Northern Ireland's council elections earlier in May. Alliance's sister party, the Liberal Democrats, also made huge gains across the UK in the European elections. Speaking about the significance of her win, Mrs Long said her party rejected "unionist and nationalist boxes". Her voice cracked with emotion as she thanked those who had elected her, saying they had sent a clear message that they wanted to remain in the EU. "The people who voted for me came together from right across the community, regardless of unionism, regardless of nationalism, regardless of all those labels," she said. "I will serve them to the absolute best of my ability - they have my word on that."