A membership form for the Irish Sovereignty Movement which was a political lobby group in the 1970s and 1980s among those involved was Anthony Coughlan. Aside from a membership application, the leaflet contains it’s policy resolutions, objectives and the methods to achieve the objectives.
In the current Referendum Campaign there are many groups outside the Political Parties campaigning on the different sides, be it IBEC, The IFA, Commercial Tenants ,Various Unions and the like. Indeed all we are missing so far is Coir.
Back in 1972 ,the Referendum on entry to the EEC also had many diverse groups campaigning for and against. This is from the Pigs and Bacon Commission who were looking for a Yes vote to “Make Sure Of Our Markets!”.
From the 1987 Referendum on the Single European Act an ad placed by the Government Information Services with the headline “Ten Reasons why you should Vote Yes”.
Prior to the McKenna Judgement the Government were free to take out ads such as this for various Referendum campaigns.
From the 1997 General Election campaign a leaflet on “Monetary Union in the EU (EMU)” produced by The Labour Party. It gives some of the arguements for going into the Euro, what it means to various sectors and what Ireland has to do to get there.
From the 1972 Referendum on entry to the Common Market an ad from the Galway Committe of the Common Market Defence Campaign.
“SAY NO – Reject Irish Entry to the Common Market Alternatives Do Exist!”
Amongst the reasons for rejection are ‘uncontrolled sale of lands to Foreign Nationals’ and ‘Destruction of the Gaeltacht’.
(from the Galway Advertiser)
From the first Lisbon Referendum in 2008 a Leaflet from Fianna Fail with the slogan “Good For Ireland, Good For Europe – Vote Yes”.
A series of links for more information are given, amongst them a link to an IBEC site.
Th Referendum was defeated before being passed in the re run.
Was contacted by PES advertising their site.
Had a look and found this which was launched recently. “A Financial Transaction Tax in Europe Now!”.
PES is the Party of European Socialists, The Labour Party are affiliated to it.
Their website is worth a visit
As they say themselves…
The Party of European Socialists (PES) brings together the Socialist, Social Democratic and Labour Parties of the European Union (EU). Its aims include:
* the strengthening of the socialist and social democratic movement in the Union and throughout Europe;
* the development of close working relationships between the national parties, the national parliamentary groups, the Parliamentary Group of the PES, PES Women, ECOSY, and other socialist and social democratic organisations;
* the definition of common policies for the European Union; and
* the adoption of a common manifesto for elections to the European Parliament.
First off man thanks to the sender. A Charming item.
From 1979 a Menu for the Labour Party Victory dinner held in honour of the election of Wicklow TD Liam Kavanagh to the European Parliament.
Amongst the menu are some delights such as Grapefruit Marachino and Brussels Sprouts Chateau (presumably in honour of the new Job in Brussels).
There is also a list of Toasts, proposed by various luminaries such as Michael O’Leary, Brendan Halligan and Justin Keating.
On the back of the Menu there was a page for autographs.
This one has Brendan Halligans, Liam Kavanaghs and another which is difficult to identify.
From the 2009 European Elections, A Frequently Asked Questions sheet for Libertas Canvassers.
Lots of questions with appealing populist answers.
The first question being..
“Who is Declan Ganley?”
“Declan is a family man from Abbeyknockmoy….came back to Ireland as a teenager when he cut turf on the bog and sold it at the market,investing his money in shares while he was still in school”
He also refers to the Turf cutting later on in the leaflet.
The then Progressive Democrat Pat Cox from the 1992 General Election in Cork South Central where he won a seat.
Pat Cox left RTE to run for the Progressive Democrats in the 1989 European Elections where he topped the poll in Munster. This leaflet is from his 1992 Dail Campaign.
In 1994 it was expected that he would remain in the Dail, instead he took on former Party Leader Des O’Malley and held his MEP seat as an Independent. In Brussels he was elected president of the ELDR group in the European Parliament in 1998 and in 2002 he was elected President of the European Parliament. He continued in that role until 2004.
He is now President of ‘The European Movement’.
There are some awaiting his return to Irish Politics.
Not sure if this was a widely distributed newsletter or not. I think it was for canvassers. From the 2009 European Election campaign.
It shows how populist Libertas was. The issues covered were all simple, popular generalities such as ‘Cut Red Tape’, ‘job protection’, ‘turf cutting’, ‘culling quangos’and so on. It is simple and well produced and its hard to disagree with most of the sentiments involved.
Given the proximity of Lisbon 2, I figured I’d post stuff from previous European Referendums (or is it Referendi?).
Here is the National Platform asking us to Vote NO to Maastricht. with Seven good reasons to do so.
As you can see it’s roughly the same core arguments used for each European Referendum…
The Convenors of the National Platform are listed as Raymond Crotty and Anthony Coughlan. It was a court case taken by Raymond Crotty that led to us having a Referendum to ratify each European Treaty.
Given the proximity of LIsbon 2, I figured I’d post stuff from previous European Referendums (or is it Referendi?).
Heres Enda asking us to Vote YES to Nice….
As you can see its roughly the same arguements for each European Referendum…
6th of June 2004 outside Croke Park… Westmeath are playing Dublin and Kildare play Wexford. Seamus Kirk and his team give out mock programmes. The Kildare and Westmeath lineups are listed as well as a message from Seamus in the middle, with a play on a slogan used by the Bank Of Ireland in its GAA themed ads.
Seamus uses the leaflet to copy an article from the Sunday Independent which tells the reader of his political career, his triumph over adversity and his GAA pedigree both on and off the field. You would do well to have something more tailored to your potential audience.
It’s very clever too as it covers a team from both matches and may well be looked at for the afternoon. Given that Westmeath beat Dublin that day (on their way to their first ever Leinster title), it may well have been held on to by a few Westmeath fans. Sport is theme used by many politicians to try to get the voter interested. (more on that another day).
You may also notice that the leaflet is printed by BCR press. (On the List of TDs expenses at http://thestory.ie/2009/08/31/donation-to-tds-1997-2008/ BCR contribute over €10,000 to Fianna Fail Meath TDs Noel Dempsey and Johnny Brady).
For the Maastricht Treaty the Democratic Left were dead set against it …….. They were in the Rainbow government for the Amsterdam Treaty and sure it was a great Treaty altogether.
Irish Election Literature 
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