Letter from Tom Crilly and Andy Smith during the 1987 election campaign about the closure of Sir Patrick Dunns Hospital.
Andy Smith was a councillor at the time and a longstanding member of the Workers Party. Both candidates stayed with the Workers Party after the 1992 split and Crilly stood a number of times in Dublin South East and Local elections.
In this 1987 Election Crilly polled 660 votes and Smith polled 1250 votes.
This is from the 1985 Local election, Ballybrack ward. Apologies that the scan is so poor. I’ll try and redo it in due course.
Looking back a quarter of a century on, a number of things stand out, amongst them,
‘Stop and Reverse the Growth of Dublin’
A sign of the times too that Acid Rain was seen as the big threat as Global Warming wasn’t known about.
‘Energy Efficient homes- major insulation scheme needed to stop hypothermia, ‘
‘An end to Land Rezoning / Speculation scandal. Tax unused property.’
‘Double Jobbing- Councillors should not also be T.Ds or Euro M.P.s’.
Sellafield still known as Windscale.
Also the reference to Bishopscourt peace camp, which was a camp beside bishopscourt radar base in Co Down that ran from 1983 to 1986.
Theres a pamphlet from Bishopscourt here
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.
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.
Paula Desmond – Labour -1999 Euro Elections Munster.
A stylish Paula Desmond from the 1999 Euro Elections Munster constituency.
Paula was daughter of the late Eileen Desmond and the late Dan Desmond.
Eileen Desmond had served for many years as a TD and had also been elected to the European Parliament in 1979. Eileen Desmond initially won a Dail seat at the 1965 Cork Mid By-election caused by the death of her husband Dan Desmond. Dan Desmond had been a TD for over 16 years.
Diarmuid Naessens wasn’t elected although did outpoll one of the Fianna Fail candidates.
Another thing from that count was that of the SWPs Martin Donohoes 308 tranfers, he got just 84.
Naessens was a very active member of the anti bin tax campaign.
Dick Roches first attempt at a Dail seat in 1987. He won a seat. Nothing much to it only a lovely picture of Dick and a few other bibs and bobs.
John McManus was a high profile and important member of The Workers Party, he is married to Liz McManus (in 1985 John McManus would have been a far more important political figure than Liz).
The ERDO report refers to the ‘Eastern Region Settlement Strategy 2011’ report from 1985. Presumably it envisaged Longford and Cavn as being in the Dublin commuter belt, or hinterland as it would have been known back then.
Lots of local stuff from the North Wicklow area which may be of interest to those that know the area.
1992 and Dubli Central had been dramatically redrawn. Twice Dublin West candidate and Cllr for Ballyfermot Senator Olga Bennett finds herself on the Fianna Fail ticket with Bertie Ahern and Dermot Fitzpatrick.
Despite using the title of Linda Mrtins Eurovision winning song as a slogan she polled 1,087 votes and Aherns healthy surplus wasn’t enough to help herself or Dermot Fitzpatrick over the line.
Sinn Fein show off all their female candidates sitting and standing happily with a smiling Gerry Adams. The Back of the leaflet covers issues such as equal pay, childcare etc..
One of Professor Richard Conroys runs for public office (He served in the Senate). Conroy has been involved in many exploration projects through various companies such as Conroy Diamonds and Gold and also Conroy petroleum.
From David Kanes profile you’ll notice a number of local issues such as Dun Laoghaire Baths that are still contentious.
(more…)
1994 Euro Elections Munster constituency. A split in the PDs led to Pat Cox standing as an Independent and Des O’Malley standing for the PDs . Cox despite being behind O’Malley on the first count took the last seat.
It was O’Malleys first election not being the party leader.
The 1989 General Election where Geraldine Kennedy loses her seat. The profile of her on the reverse is interesting in that she was the PD spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Northern Ireland. She was also their chief whip and has a number of other plaudits there too.
A sorry I Missed you card from a ‘stylish’, now Irish Times Editor, Geraldine Kennedy in 1987. Madams profession is listed as a Journalist, Larry Lohans as a Teacher and Helen Keogh as ‘Housewife’.
Kennedy served one Dail term and lost her seat in 1989.
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 couple of nice things in this from Summer 1986. A number of Workers Party ‘papers’ had the ‘People’ title. A ‘Dublin People’ was produced for the 1994 European elections and of course the Workers Party weekly paper was ‘Tomorrows People’.
This was produced in part as a reaction to the proposed introduction of Water Rates. There’s a great competition to win £10. I wonder how many entries B Maguire had through the door and indeed who won?
So on the front they were giving away money , however on the reverse they were looking for money! … Whilst others had big business and Unions to fund them, The Workers Party relied ‘entirely on contributions from our members, supporters and friends’.
874 houses in Dun Laoghaire didn’t have bathrooms, yet there were over 1000 on the dole. Why not get them to repair the housing stock?
This is a policy doc sent out by the PDs to their members in late 86 I think. Very relevant regarding Seanad Abolition
From the November 1982 General Election, a flyer for Fianna Fail candidates in Dublin Central. A young Bertie, George Colley months before his passing and Tom Leonard who would win the by election caused by Colleys death.
Ahern topped the poll with 10,542 votes with Colley also elected polling 5,622 votes, Leonard missed out polling 2,396 votes.
Irish Election Literature 
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