The generic Fianna Fail leaflet that went through the doors at election time throughout the country for the 2007 General Election. Here we have Brian Lenihan and Gerry Lynam running for Fianna Fail in Dublin West. Little or no detail about the candidates. A letter from Bertie Ahern telling us about the Next Steps.
The now Minister of Finance Brian Lenihan topped the poll and was elected on the first count.
Joe Holohan of The Democratic Left from the Dublin North by -Election held on the 11th of March 1998.
It was the last day that The Democratic Left appeared on a ballot paper (There was a by-election in Limerick East on the same day).
Joe Holohan polled just 225 votes coming in behind amongst others the Christian Solidarity Party.(result at electionsireland.org) The vote surely helped speed along the merger with the Labour party which happened less than a year later.
Many thanks to the donor.
The H-Block campiagn fielded 9 candidates in the 1981 General Election. Two were elected. Kieran Doherty was Elected in Cavan-Monaghan and Paddy Agnew was elected in Louth.
The other candidates were Joe McDonnell in Sligo/Leitrim, Martin Hurson in Longford-Westmeath, Kevin Lynch in Waterford, Tony O’Hara (Brother of Patsy O’Hara) in Dublin West, Joe McDonnell in Sligo/Leitrim , Mairéad Farrell (one of the Gibraltar 3) in Cork North Central, Sean McKenna in Kerry North and Tom McAllister in Clare.
Between them they got over 3% of the national vote.
Three other candidates stood on an Anti H-Block ticket. These were Sean Kelleher in Cork South West, Vincent Doherty (of Peoples Democracy) in Dublin North Central
and Paddy Healy in Dublin North-East.
On the second of August 1981 ,Hunger striker Kieran Doherty TD died.
Just a note to thank those who nominated the Blog for the Irish Blog Awards in three categories.
The Blog is on the longlist for Best Newcomer, Best Specialist Blog and Best Political Blog.
On a personal note I’m delighted that someone felt the site worthwhile enough to nominate it.
Thanks again.
AJ
From the 2009 European Election campaign, a letter to female voters from Sinn Fein candidate Mary Lou McDonald.
From the 1998 Limerick East by-election ( won by Labours Jan O’Sullivan) the Fine Gael candidate, the then Senator Mary Jackman.
Mary Jackman stood for the Dail on 5 occasions but was never elected.
Pictured with Michael Noonan (who was yet to be Party Leader) most of the issues are local to Limerick.
A newsletter from the late Seamus Brennan from around 1998.
He mentions all sorts such as preparation for the Single Currency (The Euro), Restoration of the Peace process.
Many of you may remember the traffic chaos that was the Kocklyon area prior to the extension of the M50 from Tallaght to Dundrum.
Theres a few words there too about Knocklyon School.
Seamus Breannan is also looking for any suggestions you may have and in the course of asking for suggestions mentions his Ministerial experience!
From the 2007 General Election, Meath West Fianna Fail candidates Johnny Brady and Noel Dempsey. Both were comfortably elected.
From the 2007 General election, John Kelly running as an Independent in Roscommon-South Leitrim. John Kelly was recently unveiled as a recruit to the Labour Party.
“Imagine an Independent candidate with the balance of power in Your Area” writes Kelly.
Backed by the Hospital Action Committee he polled over 4,500 votes. In the 2009 local elections Valerie Byrne and Paula McNamara both polled over 1000 votes running for the Hospital Action Committee.
There was no Labour candidate in the 2009 local election in Roscommon and one, John Feely in Carrick On Shannon who polled just 285 votes.
It will be interesting to see if Kelly can build on his 2007 vote.
From the 1997 General Election in Dublin South Gerard Dolan who recieved 75 votes.
I doubt if POW were a registered party.
Dolan planned to ask voters each month their views on issues that were to come up in the Dail.
It was an idea later used by Ross O’Mullane in the 2009 Dublin South by-election.
Seamus Pattison was first elected in 1961 for Carlow-Kilkenny and served until 2007. He served two Dail terms as Ceann Comhairle and was for a long time also ‘Father of the house’ (an honour which Enda Kenny now holds).
The Father of Seamus Pattison, James Pattison also served as a TD from 1932-51 and 1954-57.
Found this clipping and given the criticism of George Lee that he wasn’t a ‘Team Player’ , here he is in 1981 on the Ballyboden St Endas Junior Football team!
An election flyer for Fianna Fail candidates Michael Crowe, Frank Fahey and Éamon Ó Cuív from Galway West in 2007. Frank Fahey and Éamon Ó Cuív were elected.
So Kenny Egan has finally taken the plunge and announced that hes running for Fine Gael in the Local Elections. I thought I’d update this post on celebrity candidates. There have been quite a number of candidates with public profiles before they ran for election. Some with success, others with a total lack of success.
There are those who were Celebrities or well known to the public prior to going for election.
Amongst those from Television and stage came Orla Guerin , Frank McNamara, Pat Cox, Mairead McGuinness, Jeananne Crowley, Donagh MacCarthy-Morrough, Ted Nealon ,former RTE reporter Mary McAleese and of course George Lee. There were singers too like Dana , Sonny Knowles ran for Fianna Fail , as did TR Dallas (Tom Allen). Of these Cox, McGuinness, Dana, Nealon, Allen and Lee had success at the polls
From Sport came such GAA men as Barney Rock, Seán Flanagan, Tommy Murphy, Jack Lynch, John Doyle, Seamus Kirk, Paddy Lalor, John O’Leary, Michael Donnellan, Graham Geraghty, Tony Dempsey , ex GAA president Sean Kelly , John O’Mahoney , Kerry legends Mick O’Connell, Joe Keohane and Jimmy Deenihan. Rugby gave amongst others Dick Spring , Gerry ‘Ginger’ McLoughlin and Jim Glennon.
From other walks of life came Eamon McCann, Christine Buckley, , Tom Parlon , Shane Ross, Fergal Quinn, Colm McEochaidh, Geraldine Kennedy, Brody Sweeney, Mick Wallace,
, Adi Roche, Nuala Fennell, Colm O’Gorman, Mannix Flynn, Olive Braiden and Ivana Bacik. Of these Parlon, Kennedy, Flynn, Wallace, Fennell, Ross and Quinn all had success
There are those that become Celebrities partly from Politics
The likes of Jackie Healy Rae , Richard Boyd-Barrett , David Norris , Luke ‘Ming’ Flanaghan and the Late Bernie Murphy.
Those that became more well known in the media after political careers or election attempts
Such as Noel Whelan and Ivan Yates
The Judiciary is another area with a lot of ex politicians or election candidates,
Judge Henry Abbot, Michael White, Adrian Hardiman, George Bermingham, Pat McCartan , Seamus Hughes
There are candidates too that gain national prominence for a small time because of their posters.
Recent examples would include John Brackenand Clifford T Reid.
Kenny Egan is by no means the first and will by no means be the last ‘Celebrity Candidate’. Celebrity does not mean electoral success either. Oh and here he is on the front of a Fianna Fail newsletter…..
On the other side its rare enough that you will have Celebrities endorsing Politicians or Parties here. Duncan Stewart has done some work with the Greens.
Here John Stafford is endorsed by such luminaries as Dickie Rock and Barney McKenna. Whilst here John Colgan has a picture of himself with Esther Rantzen.
In the 2010 UK election each party had Celebrity backers.
For instance from Coronation Street Vera Duckworth and Ken Barlow backed different parties.
Labour had a leaflet with endorsements from amongst others Alex Ferguson, Ross Kemp, Eddie Izzard, JK Rowling and Patrick Stewart.
An election flyer from The Labour Party in the 1992 General Election Campaign. With Dick Spring so popular the slogan is smaller and the picture of Dick dominates the page.
Looking back quite a few of the aims were done between 1992 and 1997.
Fine Gaels Eddie Collins and Austin Deasy from the 1987 General Election in Waterford.
Having been first elected in 1969, Eddie Collins lost his seat in this election.
Austin Deasy, Father of John Deasy, was first elected in 1977 and served until 2002. He served as Minister for Agriculture from 1982 to 1987. He was behind attempts to remove both Alan Dukes and later John Bruton as Leaders of Fine Gael.
How many of the Factories listed as having Increased Government Grants still survive today?
Sean ‘Buggy’ Horan was one of the characters around Maynooth in the late 80s and known to many who frequented ‘The Roost’.
This is Buggy Horans 1991 leaflet where he contested in the Celbridge Local Electoral area. (The result on electionsireland.org)
He sadly passed away in early 2012
Another item received from a most kind donor. The prices are in old old money and from brief calculations the increases are bad.
Amongst the things to go up in price were Cigarettes (can you imagine any party giving out about that now) and the Wireless licence. The bread in the picture is what looks like a batch loaf (none of your sliced pans back then!) and all the other staples of tea, butter, flour, sugar and porter are there too.
I actually don’t know what party issued this though, other than it mustn’t have been Fianna Fail. I presume it’s from the 1954 General Election also.
Any ideas?
Irish Election Literature 
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