Tony Taaffe, formerly a Fianna Fail Councillor who left and ran as Independent Fianna Fail in the 1997 General Election. I’m not sure but I suspect he may have failed to get on the party ticket. He ran again for Fianna Fail in the 1999 local elections and was elected.
His name is recorded in some places as ‘Taffe’ as opposed to ‘Taaffe’
1997 and SouthEast Inner City Green Councillor Ciaran Cuffe is running in Dublin Central looking ‘To clean up this dirty old town’.
(you may need to click on some of the images to read them)
Having fought four general elections since 1981 without success, Eithne Fitzgerald flies home with almost 30% of the vote in 1992s Spring Tide.
Shes back here in 1997 to defend her seat. She loses it and never regained it.
‘Give me your support by voting Christy Burke number 1 on polling day’ writes Gerry Adams. Adams was incredibly popular at the time.
The leaflet also illustrates the role Christy Burke played in Sinn Fein at the time. Amongst other things it mentions that he stood in the 1996 Forum elections.
From the 1997 General Election, Anti Water Charges candidate Owen Poole running in Dublin North East.
The ‘template’ for this was also used by The Socialist Party in 1997, although as they were against the Water Charges it may have been a common template.
Poole polled 641 votes.
The late Pat Uptons last election campaign. This leaflet gives the mark of the man , his experience, his attitude to fairness in Society and you can see that his politics is in the mould of the late Frank Cluskeys. His early passing at just 54 years of age deprived the public of an excellent representative.
Plenty of good facts about 1997 here.
The Childrens allowance was £39, its now €166
‘84% of students now finish second level’ -Whats the figure now?
Water charges and Residential Property Tax both scrapped look to be on the way back.
Other bits of interest there too.
The 1997 General Election and Mary Hanafin advertises herself as ‘A legislator for the 21st century’. She was first elected to the Dail in this election. She has a few words here for ‘The Elderly’…
“A Young Leader for a Young Country” who on the inside of this doc is “A New Leader for a New Century”. The profile of Bertie “.. he is in politics only to serve the people” and other plaudits that in hindsight ring hollow.
This was one of a series of leaflets for the 1997 election produced by Fianna Fail. Some were on Crime, some on Drugs, some on Job creation and so on. The fact that there was a whole leaflet dedicated to their leader shows how much they played on ordinary Bertie who is in touch with the people. He was that important to them.
Its usual for a candidate to emphasize their surnames at election time. In this case though, its the ‘Donal’ thats in large letters, due to the fact that both Fianna Fail candidates had the surname Moynihan.
Both Donal and Michael Moynihan were elected.
1997 General Election in Dun Laoghaire and Gerard Casey polls a respectable 2000 votes for the CSP. The Paul O’Donaghue case refered to was regarding education rights for the disabled. Oddly enough it was Justice Rory O’Hanlon who gave the ruling. ( Justice O’Hanlons nephew Paul O’Loughlin has stood a number of times for the CSP.)
Brid Smiths first electoral outing in 1997, where she gained 218 first preferences, the worst performance of the 4 SWP candidates in that election.
Fast forward to 2009 and she is elected easily ,146 first preferences away from the quota, in Ballyfermot-Drimnagh standing under the People before Profit banner.
In the wake of the Lisbon 2 result, Cóir are considering becoming a political party. This is some of the election literature of Richard Greene one of the main Cóir spokespeople. Greene initially elected a councillor for the Green Party in Clonskeagh, left and founded his own party Muintir na hEireann. This is some of his literature from the 1997 General election.
A very aggressive looking leaflet from Pat Carey in 1997. Oddly enough its similar in colour to the Good Friday Agreement leaflet that went to each house.
The web address at the end of the leaflet was fairly hard to remember too. That campaign featured some fairly negative leaflets from Fianna Fail and wonderfully positive oness from the Rainbow parties. Some of the language is Haugheyesque “Fianna Fail… have never failed to provide for Dublin North West”…
Ben Briscoe was elected in 1997, despite according to this letter , not putting up posters on lamposts.
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.
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.
Berties commitments for Aer Lingus/ Aer Rianta 1997 according to Martin Brady anyhow. Although 12 years ago, it illustates how things change and theres still no Rapid Rail link to the airport…
Irish Election Literature 
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