In or about December 2008 I wrote the following* which was published in various fringe
papers –
“On January 28 1919, exactly one week after the first meeting of Dail Eireann, a young
man remarked in his diary –
‘Just one thing occurs to me to mention before I put this diary away: an example of how
our claim for self-determination of small nations – championed by Britain in the name of
the Czechs – is misrepresented by politicians and newspapers there. In quoting last year’s
general election they give the total votes cast for and against Sinn Fein only in contested
elections, completely ignoring the 25 constituencies where Sinn Fein candidates were
returned unopposed, thus presenting an entirely misleading picture.’ “
Ninety years on, Irish politicians, newspapers and academics have adopted the disingenuous
begrudgery of the British commentators remarked on by Edward MacLysaght, who lived from
1887 to 1986, whose character may be remembered by some readers.
Professor Richard English of Queen’s University, Belfast, in his study of Ernie O’Malley, remarks
that Sinn Fein polled “only 47 per cent” of the votes cast in Ireland.” Ex-Taoiseach, and Chancellor
of the National University of Ireland, Garret Fitzgerald, I’m advised, has also made the same claim
in The Irish Times.
The party Fitzgerald led, and its predecessor, Cumann na Gael, would be lucky to get 47 per cent
of votes cast ,ever. Abstentionist republicans allowed Cumann na Gael to rule from 1923 to 1932,
and Fitzgerald himself would never have formed his first government if an IRA prisoner and an INLA
prisoner hadn’t been elected to the Dail in 1981.
One Stephen King, writing in The Irish Examiner (3 December 2008) acknowledges the 25 uncontested seats but would have us believe that the Irish Parliamentary Party, some of whose members, and tens of thousands of whose supporters, had faced German Artillery and machine guns for four years in France, was intimidated by a virtually totally unarmed republican movement, many of whose candidates and key workers, including Desmond Fitzgerald, Garret’s father, had meekly allowed themselves to be arrested, deported and jailed by the British.
The fact is that uncontested constituencies were quite common in Britain and Ireland prior to 1918.
In 1906 Unionists got MORE than 50 percent of the votes cast in Ireland, but the Nationalists got the Lion’s Share of the seats, 84 of which were uncontested.
In 1886 Unionists got MORE than 50 per cent of the votes cast, but Nationalists got 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, not just a Bum’ ?
Did they, Heck! Elections were of secondary interests to Unionists in 1886 and 1906. In the General Election of 1906 the Conservative and Unionist Party representation in the House of Commons was reduced to about 25 per cent of the seats. Arthur Balfour, the Prime Minister lost his seat but he was quite unfazed. Addressing his followers, he said that, in or out of office, his Party should “control the affairs of this Great Empire.” As his party had a permanent majority in the House of Lords, which could veto any Bill (except a Money Bill) passed by the Commons, until Doomsday
and beyond, he wasn’t being unduly boastful.
When the Liberals, with Irish and Labour Party support, passed the Parliament Act in 1911 limiting the Lord’s veto rights to three readings of a Bill, the Unionists took the Paramilitary Road.
In effect ‘A Rifle in One Hand and Ballocks the Ballot’ was the policy.
To dispose of the bum analyses and specious pleas of the enemies of democracy, the salient facts of the 1918 election in Ireland are given below:
Sinn Fein took 73 Seats, the Irish Nationalist Party took 6 and the Unionists took 26.
All the Unionists seats except 2 for Dublin University (Trinity College) and 1 for Rathmines (then a Borough on the edge of Dublin) were in Ulster. Every seat in the provinces of Leinster, Munster and Connacht went to Sinn Fein, except Waterford, where the Irish Parliamentary party retained its one seat. Everywhere Sinn Fein and the Irish Party slugged it out toe to toe Sinn Fein took
over 50% of the votes cast.
At the Dissolution of Parliament in 1918 the Irish Party held 73 seats, and Sinn Fein had won 3 byelections on an abstentionist ticket.”
*I have made some very minor alterations above to the piece I had published in 2008.
The paragraph below is taken verbatim from it
“In the 12 UK General Elections since 1964, where all, save the Speaker’s seat, have been contested, only once did the party which
won power equal the 47 per cent of the votes cast, which Sinn Fein won in 1918 when there so many uncontested seats.
By way of contrast, the current UK government took about 32 per cent of the votes cast in 2005.”
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