The late Tony Gregory spent 25 years in the Dail, yet it was for “The Gregory Deal” in his first term that many remember him most for. He was an avid community activist and worker, staunchly anti drugs and was jailed for his stand with the Street traders. This leaflet is from the 1985 Local elections.
A Nail the Lies leaflet from the Fianna Fail Feb 1982 campaign.Hitting out at Fine Gaels 1981 promises. Mentions the famous Vat on clothing and footwear that brought down that government.
Mention too of ‘housewives’… you wouldn’t get that today.
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Fianna Fail Dun Laoghaire November 1982.The line up including Lady Valerie Goulding.
How often, if ever has a ‘Lady’ or ‘Lord’ run for Fianna Fail? (Henry Mountcharles ran for Fine Gael in Louth in 1992 and later as an Independent for the Seanad.)
Included too are David Andrews, Owen Hammond and the supposed author of the infamous 1977 Fianna Fail Manifesto Martin O’Donoghue. David Andrwews won a seat, O’Donoghue lost his seat at this election as Fine Gael took 3 of the five seats in Dun Laoghaire.
It was also the first electoral outing of now Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore who stood for the Workers Party.
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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…
With Jim Fitzsimons staying in Europe. Colm Hilliard was the only sitting Fianna Fail TD to contest the 1987 General Election in Meath.
Hilliard, Former TD Michael Lynch and newcomers Mary Wallace and Noel Dempsey were on the Fianna Fail ticket.
Lynch topped the poll as Fianna Fail won three of the five seats with Colm Hilliard and Noel Dempsey joining him in the Dail.
In 1989 Lynch lost his seat pipped on the final count by party colleague Dempsey.
In that 1989 election on the first count just 723 votes separated the four Fianna Fail candidates.
Lynch was unlucky that the two Dail terms he served were short, one period was from February to November 1982 and the other from 1987 to 1989.
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.
In the the 1999 local elections, the Socialist Workers Party put forward 8 candidates, none of whom were close to being elected. This is the literature of Grace Lally who stood in the Rathmines Ward. Contains information on the candidate, the SWP Election Manifesto and of course the “Get Involved” form too.
A Leaflet from the 1997 general election asking voters to ‘Vote Christian’. The National Party and Christian Solidarity Party were both Pro-Life as were the rest of the candidates listed.
Eamon Murphy in Dublin Central had been in the shortlived Christian Centerist Party, Cllr Richard Greene had a party Muintir na hEireann which had literature for that election but must not have been registered. Sean Lyons and Sean Dublin Bay Loftus would have also been Pro-Life.
All of the candidates listed, bar Sean Dublin Bay Loftus, lost their deposits.
From the 1999 local elections a flyer from Mick Murphy of The Socialist Party running in Tallaght Central. Murphy polled 753 votes and failed to win a seat.
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.
Roger Garland made History when he became Ireland first ever Green TD in the 1989 General Election. He was elected in Dublin South. He lost his seat however in 1992. His first preference vote went from 4771 in 1989 to 2258 in 1992.
Here we have a 1992 flyer.
Given that it was a contentious issue and parties were split by the issue, the main parties produced little on the 1986 Divorce Referendum.
This is a leaflet from the main Divorce pressure group of the time, The Divorce Action Group. Also refered to as DAG they had been founded in 1980.
There’s some pretty funny stuff in this…
First off he changed his name to ‘Abel’ O’Reilly to be top of the ballot paper. What alternative to alphabetical order would he have proposed?
I gather he was a member of the PDs and had sought the nomination, hence ….
“Sean Doherty TD has described the addition of Geraldine Kennedy to the PD ticket as Hitler Politics”
You’d never have guessed either that he was once a policeman in the US.
The Vote yourself into Money is quoted too, with his odds of being elected at 50-1. lots more odd stuff there too. He polled 233 votes.
You got your picture taken once with Esther Rantzen ….so have it as the centrepiece of your campaign for the 1991 Local elections…..
Wonder did the electors know you had your picture taken with Alice Glenn and Michael Keating 10 years earlier though?
A well produced booklet for the 1997 General Election. The Democratic Left had been in government for the previous 3 years as part of the Rainbow Coalition.
1987 was the PDs first Gerneral Election. There was a bit of a buzz about Dessie (another such as Bertie,Charlie and Garret that the electorate were on first name terms with). This shows what their initial policies were.
They included abolition of the Seanad and Ministerial Pensions……
Election 87 after five years in Government Fine Gael play on the highly popular (and important) slogan of
the time ‘Guaranteed Irish’. They had inherited a country in bits and some of the text such as “You’ve worked hard- don’t throw it all away” gives an idea of the sacrifices the public (or the PAYE sector) were making. Mind you there was still an awful long way to go….
We have the front page, the middle pages which are “What Fine Gael have done” and “What Fine Gael will do”
Amongst what they had done was… “Started the first ever reform of the Public Service”,”The Anglo-Irish Agreement”,
“Biggest road building programme ever” and so on.
Amongst what they would do was “Build regional sports centres”. Also with regard to creating jobs- “get fares down further and increase tourism”. There were no low budget airlines back then. The low budget was the supabus to London, which many had taken but not come back.
1987 was also the Progressive Democrats first General Election.
The Roscommon Hospital Action Committee (H.A.C.) was founded in 1977 and still has a number of councillors (Paula McNamara and Valerie Byrne) in Roscommon today. Eithne Quinn stood for the HAC in the 1987 General Election but failed to be elected. However in 1989 Tom Foxe stood for the HAC and was elected. Below some of his literature from that election. (I have some of his later literature also). He was re-elected for the new constituency on Longford-Roscommon in 1992, however lost his seat in 1997.
Aside from the Hospital issue the Leaflet illustrates some of the issues in the West at the time.
Irish Election Literature 
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