This is the first four pages of the Newsletter ‘Resistance’ November/December 2007 issueproduced by the Irish Socialist Network. (I’ll put the inner fold up at a later date)
The ‘What we Stand For’ section explains the groups policys. To date John O’Neill has (to my knowledge) been their only candidate, running in the last two local elections and also in the last General Election.
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.
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.
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.
Plenty of waste mentioned here by Brendan Donohoe in 2004. He didn’t know the half of it! He polled 308 votes.
Union official (and since President of SIPTU) Geraghty stood for the Workers Party in the 1984 Euro elections getting 19,590 votes, almost 7%.
John Ryan from the 1998 Limerick East By-election (Caused by the death of Jim Kemmy). It took place on the 11th March along with the Dublin North By-election. As far as I’m aware it was the last day the name Democratic Left appeared on an Irish ballot paper.
The By-Election was won by Labours Jan O’Sullivan. Fianna Fail only got 23% of the vote.
John Ryan had been elected to Limerick Corporation in 1991 as a Workers Party candidate and there were hopes that he would build a substantial base from that.
Here we have testaments about Ryan from ‘Limerick people’ and also from the Parties top table.
There were high hopes that both Michael Enright and Catherine Murphy could put down a marker for future Dail progress. A General election was held on the same day and it was hoped that their candidacy in the Euro Elections would give them a boost.
Although the Workers Party vote increased from 1984s Euro Election, both candidates lost their deposits with a combined 4.38% of the vote.
In the General election Enrights vote actually fell, whilst Murphys 1,520 vote was decent enough in the circumstances (An ‘Army Wives’ candidate, Carol Tiernan also stood in Kildare polling 2,690 votes, some of which would have gone to Murphy).
The thorny issue of party policy towards Farmers must have also had an impact on the vote. “Reorganisation of Agricultural production…”
wasn’t the policy to have rural voters flocking to the party. Also we had another new party ‘Logo’.
This is fantastic, gives a glimpse of domestic life in the late 60s as well as warning the many many pitfalls that may arise.
At the time too not that many had cars, so the Driver was a very important figure at election time, especuially in rural areas.
Yet You’d think that giving lifts to voters was a simple enough matter…….
Its full of handy tips
“Try to have your car as clean as possible….. do not take any alcohol while polling is in progress”
“…Encourage the women to vote early as this will leave the men free in the evening… ”
and of course “Don’t forget to vote yourself!”
The 1989 Euro elections, a breakthrough as Proinsias DeRossa wins the seat. The style and content of this leaflet was refered to in ‘The Lost Revolution’. The centrepiece where he has the three people was novel at the time.
“Sean is from the Southside ..Dolores is from the Northside..” I wonder where they are now?
Also the leaflet is addressed to my family rather than to each of the then 5 voters in the house. Similar for the Workers Party General election Candidate, probably illustrates how tight funds were at the time.
Reading this its hard to believe that Labour were in government at the time. .. Yet Donegal Labour had a Socialist Agenda. They “oppose the right -wing Labour leaders who are doing Fine Gaels dirty work in Government”.
On the North the focus was on the Working Class rather than the Nationalist/Unionist divide.
The whole thing is a valuable read to illustrate how ‘diverse’ the Labour Party were at the time.
I’m not sure but I suspect She was part of the Militant Labour group that became the Socialist Party.
In the late 80’s North Kildare was seen a major growth area of the Workers Party. In 1988 Catherine Murphy and Colm Purcell (who later joined Labour) had been elected to Leixlip Town Commission, although Murphy didn’t do brilliantly in the following years General and European Elections. The recently formed Maynooth branch get a mention at the back. Among them Fiachra O Ceilleachair who served as a Democratic Left and later a Labour councillor in Waterford. Also there is Geography lecturer Prionsias Breathnach who is still a regular contributor to various publications (as well as his own).
1989s marked shift in party policy is illustrated by the welcome given to Intel. Not just that but we have Catherine Murphy acting as a conduit for Intel recruiters. What we also see here is that Water Quality issues are not a recent thing!
A Socialist Emmet Stagg, complete with Starry Plough in 1989 . The issues mentioned and the organisations he is a member of tell us a lot about the time.
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.
This is unusual in that at the time Sinn Fein were Anti EEC. It details the reasons why Ireland should withdraw. It was only 11 years since we had joined. Some of the images are big, I’ve tried to pare them down whilst still making them readable.
Eye catching leaflet from Eric Byrne on house prices and the money being made by developers . It made a lot of sense at the time . Although what those houses are worth now is anyones guess.
The now Labour Party Leader .The then 27 year old Trade Union Official in his first election standing for the Workers Party in Dun Laoghaire – November 1982.
In 1985 he won a council seat in Ballybrack, before winning a seat in the Dail in 1989.
There are many gimmicks to get a voter to hold on to your leaflet, it may list telephone numbers of local services, be a fridge magnet calendar , a sporting fixtures guide, a match programme….. and then there’s the quiz!
A nice picture of yourself on the front and A Quiz where you also sneak yourself in as two of the answers on the back!
Irish Election Literature 
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