Geography plays a major part in Irish elections, especially in larger rural constituencies. Often transfers are done locally rather than party wise. The nature of things is that more appears to be done in an area or town which has a TD than not.
Alan Dukes Led Fine Gael- Dun Laoghaire 1989 November 3, 2009
An Alan Dukes led Fine Gael in the 1989 General election. “Putting the Country First” was the Slogan. The Tallaght strategy is not mentioned by name but refered to as ‘The revolution of Consensus Politics’. The ‘Alan’ of his signature looks as if it may have a letter or two too many.
The familiar Barnes , Barrett, Cosgrave ticket was running for Fine Gael. Both Barnes and Barrett held their seats.
Fine Gael ‘Yes’ to Bail Referendum 1996. October 30, 2009
1996 and the Rainbow government were getting tough on crime. A number of cases had arisen where the culprits had been out on bail. So the bail laws had to be changed, which in turn needed a referendum.
Fine Gael- Bernard Durkan, Gerard Callery, Catherine McGarry- Celbridge LEA 1991 October 20, 2009
Not too many candidates these days would include beagling in their hobbies and interests as Catherine McGarry does.
Fine Gael 1982 -Taxing the Farmers October 19, 2009
Anyone who lived through the 70’s and 80’s will know what an issue taxing farmers was, especially in urban areas. Farmers were seen as gettingall the grants from Europe and not paying tax either.
Meanwhile the PAYE worker was the one left carrying the burden. Here Fine Gael claim that they tax the farmers more than Fianna Fail. I think that its from 1982 or else 1987.
Colm Mac Eochaidh -Fine Gael 2002 Dublin South East October 16, 2009
Colm Mac Eochaidh, who along with Michael Smith in 1995 offered a reward of €10,000 for information leading to convictions for corruption in the planning system in Dublin. He failed in this attempt at election.
Alan Shatter – ‘Star Trek’ 2007 October 14, 2009
From 2007, one of the most bizarre leaflets I’ve seen. Alan Shatter dressed up (or photoshoped) in Star Trek gear.
Comparing himself to William Shatner and lots more besides…. Shatter regained the seat he had lost in 2002. (his record at electionsireland.org)
Funnily enough William Shatners middle name is Alan, William Alan Shatner.
Alan Shatter ….Alan Shatner … Its a pity Alan Shatters not younger , otherwise there would be a chance that he was named Alan as a tribute to the Star Trek Actor!
I’ve pared down the size but given the amount of colour involved the images are still big.
Peter Barry , Hugh Coveney- Fine Gael -Cork South Central 1987 October 13, 2009
Peter Barry of Barrys Tea and Hugh Coveney, Two fine Fine Gael TDs for Cork South Central.
Peter Barry served from 1969 until 1997 as a TD spending a period as Tainiste in 1987. His Father Anthony Barry was also a TD as is his daughter Deirdre Clune, which makes the Barrys another Irish Political dynasty.
Hugh Coveney was elected to the Dail in 1981, lost his seat on two occasions, regaining it at the next available opportunity. He passed away after a cliff fall in 1998. His son Simon Coveney won the resulting by-election. In 2007 both Coveney and Clune won seats for Fine Gael in Cork South Central, 26 years after both their fathers first represented the same constituency.
Also included is Garrets message to the electorate with pictures of Garret meeting the electorate.
Vision, With Purpose -Fine Gael 2002 October 12, 2009
Saw this and it bought back memories of the 2002 election, when Fine Gael were decimated. Each house would have got this in the run up to the election. I can visualize Michael Noonan saying ‘I want to see our public services become the envy of Europe’…..
… and wasn’t “Vision, With Purpose” one of the worst slogans ever.
So whilst Fine Gael had Michael Noonan witha shocking slogan, Fianna Fail had the blue eyed Bertie with ‘A lot done, more to do’
Alan Shatter -Dublin South 1987 October 11, 2009
Not quite the fancy stuff he produces now! At least it was a proper ‘Sorry I missed you’ rather than the pre printed ones we get now.
Brian Hayes – “Say No to Single Party Government” 2002 October 10, 2009
This is interesting in that it wasn’t just the PDs who were saying no to one party government in 2002, it was Fine Gael too. Funny thing is this was out before the PDs poster campaign
Here we had a case of two parties saying the exact same thing, but reading the PD posters they implied keeping their few TDs in government as ‘watchdogs’, whilst FG were looking for an anti Fianna Fail vote.
On the back we have his achievements and Stanley Lang urging votes for Brian.
Louis Belton, John Connor, Liam Naughten -Fine Gael 1992 Longford-Roscommon October 7, 2009
In 1992 the newly founded Longford-Roscommon constituency. John Connor was the only one of the 3 candidates to be elected. The Jobs proposals may bring back memories of how desperate we were to create jobs and stop the awful flow of emigration.
Fine Gael Ballymote 1985 LE-Eddie Cogan,Leo Conlon,Neil Henry, Tommy Lavin, Tony McLoughlin, John Perry. October 5, 2009
The 1985 Local elections Ballymote LEA. The Fine Gael ticket of Eddie Cogan,Leo Conlon,Neil Henry, Tommy Lavin, Tony McLoughlin and John Perry. Current Fine Gael TD John Perry wasn’t elected. The leaflet also urges voters to ‘continue your preferences for the Labour Party’. There was no Labour Party candidate.
Michael Keating, Kevin Byrne -Fine Gael 1985 Local Elections. September 26, 2009
This is from the 1985 local elections, A year later he defected to join the Progressive Democrats. He was the only Fine Gael TD to do so, although later on left the PDs and rejoined Fine Gael.
His reputation took a turn when in later years when, amongst other things, he made a settlement with the CAB over unpaid taxes and was also mentioned in a serious Fraud case.
“Partnership That Works” -Rainbow Coalition Flyer 1997 election September 23, 2009
This is a joint document from the 1997 Rainbow Government. Highly unusual that 3 parties have a joint platform for an Irish General election. For the odd referendum you may find a common leaflet but certainly for a General Election its fairly Unique.
Their 21 goals for the 21st Century are spelt out as are their achievements in Government to date. Some nice poses from the three party leaders too.
1997 Rainbow Government- “Partnership Works” slogan
In 1997 the Rainbow government went to the country looking for a new term. It was an already agreed joint platform which is highly
unusual. Each party had a ‘Partnership works’ slogan on their literature asking voters to continue their preferences to other
Government parties.
They also produced a joint policy document. And some joint election material.
In previous times Fine Gael/Labour had on occassion asked voters to continue preferences to the other party. At times it was unrequited as Fine Gael asked , but Labour didn’t. Indeed there are examples here where Fine Gael asked for Transfers to Labour where no Labour Party candidate stood.
Fine Gael November 1982 General Election- “Change for the Better” Newsletter September 22, 2009
Fine Gael in November 1982. Garret Fitzgerald is used prominently. Note the reference to “after the Shambles of Fianna Fail”. Most elections up until the late 90s FF would have campaigned on the benefits and stability of single party government. This was a good dig at that. The outgoing Fianna Fail government had had all sorts of scandals as well as the usual internal dissent over Haugheys leadership.
Alan Dukes, Bernard Durkan-Fine Gael Kildare 1992 September 19, 2009
From 1992 , A post leadership Alan Dukes and running mate Bernard Durkan. Both were elected.
Alan Dukes has of course gone on to better things since such as his role with Anglo Irish Bank.
Irish Election Literature 
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