From the 2004 Local Elections a leaflet from Neil Clarke who was running for the Green Party in Letterkenny for both Donegal County Council and Letterkenny UDC. He polled 544 votes running for the County Council and missed out on a seat, however he polled 276 votes and was elected to Letterkenny Town Council.
Many thanks to the sender.
Leaflet from Neil Clarke – Green Party -Letterkenny -2004 Local Elections December 7, 2016
Sample Ballot paper from Independent Fianna Fail (Blaney) -1985 Local Elections Letterkenny UDC May 17, 2011
From the 1985 Local Elections a sample Ballot paper issued by Independent Fianna Fail for Letterkenny UDC. The candidates were Tadhg Culbert, James Larkin, Hugh Dorrian and Jim Lynch. (A leaflet from them with details of the candidates is posted here)
Of the other Non Party candidates Patrick J Blake, Charles Grant and Sean Maloney ran for The Community Party, whilst James Devenney ran for the Donegal Progressive Party which attracted a Protestant vote.
Sean Gallagher -Sinn Fein -Letterkenny UDC 1985 LE December 9, 2010
From the 1985 Local Elections a leaflet for Sinn Fein candidate Sean Gallagher running for Letterkenny UDC.
Unemployment, Emmigration and Housing are amongst the many issues covered in the Leaflet.
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Donegal Labour /Labour Youth -1985 LE December 5, 2009
Donegal Labour weren’t happy about being in coalition with Fine Gael. Being Socialists they didn’t want coalition with Fianna Fail either.God knows what they would have thought of the yet to be formed Progressive Democrats.
That small piece shows the problems parties (especially of the Left) have when going into Coalition. Here were Donegal Labour in effect, disavowing the party that they were standing for. Maybe thats why the literature differs from the 1985 Labour Party template.
Under the No Coalition is a small bit about Labour Youth and a recruitment ‘form’. The name to send off to is F McCafferty. Francis McClafferty stood in the 2004 local elections for the Socialist Party. In 2009 he was part of the group that set up the ‘Letterkenny Residents Party’ which had Tom Crossan elected to the UDC.
On the Reverse is a profile of Anne Wilkinson who was standing in the 1985 local elections for Labour.
Anne Wilkinson- Labour Donegal 1985 October 14, 2009
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.
Tadhg Colbert, James Larkin, Hugh Dorrian, Jim Lynch- Independent Fianna Fail -Letterkenny UDC 1985 October 11, 2009
Tadhg Colbert, James Larkin, Hugh Dorrian and Jim Lynch. An Interesting bunch here. Unusual to see a candidates name have two different spellings. Tadhg Colbert on the front, Tadgh Culbert on the back. He later joined Fianna Fail and stood for them in the 1994 UDC elections.
James Larkin was Neil T Blaneys director of elections. He had also been a member of the Seanad, nominated as part of the deal for Independent Fianna Fail TD Neil T Blaney to support the 1982 Haughey government. Whilst not quite the headline grabber the Gregory deal was, this was the one and only time the Independent Fianna Fail party had a seat in the Seanad.
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