In 1906 Unionists got more than 50% of the votes cast in Ireland, but Nationalists took the Lion’s Share of the seats, 84 of which were uncontested.
In 1886 Unionists got more than 50% of the votes cast in Ireland, but Nationalists took the Lion’s Share of the seats, 66% of which were uncontested.
Did the Unionists complain, whining like Terry Molloy in “ON THE WATERFRONT” –
“I coulda had class, I coulda been a contender, I coulda been somebody, not just a bum”?
DID THEY, HECK! Elections were of secondary interest to Conservatives and Unionists.
Votes cast, Irish or British, could be overruled.
In 1906 the Conservative/Unionist Party was reduced to about 25% of the seats in the House of Commons, and Arthur Balfour, who had been its leader, lost his seat.
Unfazed, Balfour addressed his followers, declaring that the party, in office or out, should “control the affairs of this Great Empire.” His was no idle boast, as the Lords, with its Conservative/Unionist majority, could Veto Bills passed in the Commons.
When the Veto was removed, the Conservative/Unionist Parliamentarians took the
Para-militarty road. “A Rifle in one hand and a Ballot in the other” you might think.
Anyway, to dispose of Bum Analyses peddled by Democracy’s Enemies to this day,
Sinn Fein in 1918 took 73, Nationalists 6, and Unionists 26 Irish Seats in a contest “accepted by all sides as a Plebiscite” according to THE TIMES.
All the Unionist seats, except 2 in Dublin University (Trinity College) and 1 in Rathmines,
(then a Borough on the edge of Dublin), were in Ulster. Every other seat save Waterford in Munster which remained Nationalist, in the provinces outside Ulster went to Sinn Fein.
In those 3 Provinces (except for the 4 seats mentioned) wherever Sinn Fein Republicans and the Nationalist Party slugged it out toe-to- toe, Sinn Fein took over 50% of the votes cast. Some of the Nationalists’ 5 seats in Ulster were the product of an understanding with Sinn Fein to keep the Unionists out.
Following the Election, Sinn Fein established a Republic, the only National Democracy
established by Plebiscite following the war which Britain had declared it had waged for
the Self-Determination of Small Nations.
Territories seized by Britain and France from the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires were
determined by Britain and France to be Nations or Countries, and no Plebiscites were
permitted. Some of the new “countries” disappeared not once but twice, such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and not one of them has enjoyed a happy existence since – Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran for instance. And it seems to me that the happiness of their populations had little to do with British and French statesmen’s calculations.
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