GENERAL ELECTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 2024 and 1918
Nobody denies the right of the winning party to form a Government. Not revisionist
academics in the 26 counties nor Unionist Academics in Queen’s University in Belfast.
In 1918 Republicans won a “mere” 47% of votes cast in Ireland and claimed the right
to form a government as their party took 73 of Ireland’s 105 parliamentary seats.
Those of the successful Republican candidates not in prison met in Dublin on 21st
January 1919 as Ireland’s National Parliament in accordance with their mandate.
The Irish Republic was the only state set up on the conclusion of Britain’s joint war
with France and others fought on the pretext of defending small nations, and the right
of all nations to self determination.
There was no plebiscite in Palestine, “Lebanon” “Iraq”, “Czechoslovakia”, ” Yugoslavia” or Mickey Mouse invention of the Imperial powers.
Even THE TIMES of London,no friend of Sinn Fein, conceded that in Ireland the election was regarded on all sides as a plebiscite.
But the fact that Sinn Fein won a mere 46% of the votes cast was used at the time
to invalidate their achievement and later by such luminaries as Professor (of Politics) Richard English of Queen’s University Belfast.
I quote below a Diary Entry for 28th January 1919, one week to the day after the
first meeting of Dail Eireann :-
“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 case of
the Czechs – is misrepresented by politicians and newspapers there. In quoting statistics
for last year’s general election, they give the total votes cast for and against Sinn Fein,
completely ignoring the 25 constiuencies where Sinn Fein candidates were returned
unopposed, thus presenting an entirely misleading picture.”
That entry was made by Edward MacLysaght (1897-1986) and reproduced in his
Memoir “CHANGING TIMES – Ireland since 1898” published in 1978.
MacLysaght’s life was a kaleidoscopic tour of countries and decades by an expert
in disparate disciplines, a man of manifest decency. His Memoir gives the Bum’s
Rush to charlatan academics.
Before 1918 it was common both in Britain and in Ireland for candidates being
elected unopposed.
In Ireland no Unionist candidate might be nominated in the provinces of Connacht
or Munster. In Leinster Trinity College (Dublin University) elected Unionists, as
did Rathmines.. But the province was mostly free of Unionist Parliamentary Candidates.
In the first decade of the 20th Century Unionists and in the 9th Decade of the 19th Century, the Nationalist won the lion’s share of Irish seats in one election, though the Unionists got most of the votes cast.
Before the dissolution of Parliament in 1918 Nationalists in Ireland held 73 Irish
seats and Unionists 26 and Sinn Fein Abstentionists had been elected to 6.
After the 1918 election Unionists held 26 seats, Nationalists 6 And Sinn Fein
had won 73 seats which they chose to take in the capital of the self-determined
Irish Republic
.
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