With Barry Desmond off to Europe, Labours chances of retaining the seat were slim, especially with the Workers Partys Eamon Gilmore on the up. A two candidate strategy made it harder and despite the stature of both candidates the seat was lost to The Workers Party.
Jane Dillon Byrne is still a councillor and the brief pen pic below only gives brief highlights of her career (another leaflet from 1985 gives a better detail) .She was also a swimming teacher…
From the 2002 General Election a leaflet from Labour candidate Joanna Tuffy who just missed out on the final seat in Dublin Mid-West. She polled 2,563 votes.
Eamonn Murphy from the 1994 European elections. It has one of the strangest reasons to vote for a person I’ve seen.
Based on an apparition of the Blessed Virgin to a Japanese Stigmatist in 1973, accepted by the now Pope Benedict XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger) , Murphy wants to prepare for the prophesies and other forthcoming disasters by maximizing food production.
He is also a Pro Life Candidate. He had stood for the Short Lived Christian Centrist Party in 1991 and was standing for a group called
“Independent European Alliance’ in 1994.
Amongst those he outpolled in 1994 were PD candidate Stephen O’Byrnes, Fianna Fails Olive Braiden and Sinn Feins Larry O’Toole.
The then Independent Peter Ormond from the 1999 local elections in Birr where he was elected.
He duly switched to Fianna Fail and was elected in 2004 and 2009 on the Fianna Fail ticket.
Peter Ormond illustrates here many of the issues that went ignored since 1999. Roads being flooded, planning issues and so on.
Gemma Hussey and Godfrey Timmins from the 1987 General Election. Having been in government since November 1982 Fine Gael lost 20 seats in the 1987 election amongst them Godfrey Timmins. The advent of the PDs hit Fine Gael badly.
Gemma Hussey only served as a TD from 1982 to 1989 yet made an impact. Hurricane Charlie is mentioned too.
Liam Blaney (son of Harry Blaney, Brother of Niall Blaney, nephew of Neil T Blaney etc….), Joseph Cullen and Michael McBride from the 2004 Local Elections which were not brilliant by any means for Independent Fianna Fail. In Milford Liam Blaney held on to his seat but McBride and Cullen failed to get elected.
(kindly sent by IFF at the time)
A trodden Ronan Garvey (sadly I pick these things up when I see them on the ground) from the 1999 local Elections in Clontarf where he failed to be elected. The leaflet has details of the PDs proposed Transport policy for the Dublin area. Much of which has come to fruition since.
From 1987 Ruairi Quinn outlines the achievements of the Labour Government and himself in the previous four years, especially his time as Minister for Labour and Public Service.
It’s quite a good read,especially the final page which has examples of the Social Employment Scheme (SES) –which he set up in action. Also there is the work done by AnCO on the renovation and restoration of the Irish College at Louvain.
The “Did you know?..” lists some of the worthy achievements of Labour in government…. alas one “Politics have been taken out of planning” didn’t last too long.
Found this in the attic over Christmas, the programme for the Self Aid concert in May 1986. Lets Make it work…
The day itself was great fun, the musical highlights were many.. Rory Gallagher playing ‘Follow Me’ (The theme tune to MT USA)
..and lots more including of course U2s performance of Maggies Farm.
Yet why were all these people there? Why watch were all the people watching?
Unemployment. The political classes, Government and the State weren’t able to provide employment, so maybe a concert would?
Tony Boland and Niall Matthews message is whats relevant (ie a failure of State and political system) for this Blog.
Jobs were promised, the Self Aid Trust was set up …. did it have any long term impact?
From the 2004 European Elections, a leaflet from Sinn Fein candidate Mary Lou McDonald, where she won a seat in Dublin.
From the 1989 General Election Campaign, where Fianna Fail called an unneccessary election in the hope of gaining an overall majority. Lots here of interest although these lines…..
“FIANNA FAIL IS THE PARTY
Don’t Interupt its good work”
..take some beating.
Pictured under the corny heading of ‘Tuning in to a working majority’ greeting musicians are Charlie Haughey, Betty Coffey, Brian Hillery and David Andrews behind him. (as an aside if I’m correct and its Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre in the picture…the escalator in view is where Georgie Burgess exclaims his love for Sharon in the Film ‘The Snapper’)
Click on Images to increase size
Mary Flaherty who at this stage had been a TD since 1981. She was also married to former Fine Gael TD Alexis Fitzgerald. She lost her seat in this 1997 election and retired from Politics. She was outpolled by her party colleague Brendan Brady who also failed to get in.
The long awaited Luas to the airport and Ballymun is amongst other things mentioned here.
From the November 1982 General Election, the now Judge Michael White (refered to here as Mick White in the profile). White stood in a number of Elections and despite hard work on the ground had no electoral success.
The Workers Partys achievements are listed as are their plans. We also have the picture Prionsias De Rossa, Paddy Gallagher and Joe Sherlock outside the Dail.
If using any of these images it would be nice to give me some credit for scanning them and posting them up (Unlike the Irish Independent who again used images from the site without crediting me)
It was here in the 2002 General Election that one of the Flaws of the electronic voting system was made apparent.
The result was just announced by the returning officer with little or no indication to the candidates as to their success. On live TV Nora Owen lost her seat without any prior indication that she had done so. It was deemed as cruel and the proposed system was changed to give updates after each count rather than just deliver the end result.
The Fact that Nora Owen was a Minister added to the drama.
The Leaflets below also show how Fine Gael were not exactly spendthrift given the promises listed.
Mick Murphy from 2002 where he got 954 votes. At the time the cost of motor insurance for young drivers was a hot issue and The Socialist Party became involved with the Motor insurance justice action group (MIJAG).
The back of the Leaflet was to do with another issue the Socialist Party were (are) involved in that was the protest against refuse charges.
Michael Courtney from the 1999 Local Elections in Killarney where he was elected to the Town Council.
1997 and The Democratic Left literature was very well produced with lots of colour. On the front a candidate strode and on the reverse the candidate was at the top table.
In 2004 Anthony Creevey was elected to Naas Town Council when running for Fianna Fail.
Tony Lowth from the 1991 Local elections in the North Inner City. Lowth a campaigner for deserted fathers (He took a number of legal cases regarding the fact that a deserted husband with dependents was not entitled to the same allowances as a deserted wife with dependents).
Irish Election Literature 
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