A Letter from Fianna Fail candidate Owen Hammond in the November 1982 General Election where he stood in Dun Laoghaire. The fact that it’s personally signed illustrates the changes over the years…These days it would be a ‘sorry I missed you’ card with the pre printed signature.
Hammond polled 893 votes as Fine Gael won 3 of the 5 seats.
Liz McManus, Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal, from the 1997 General Election in Wicklow. The Democratic Left produced leaflets in this style for each candidate, all pictured walking purposefully, often by the sea. Here Liz walks on Bray seafront.
It has praising quotes about the candidate from newspapers . The achievements both in Wicklow and Nationally of The Rainbow government are listed. Amongst them ‘Tour De France 1998 for Wicklow’
Karen Canning of the The Independents Health Alliance who stood eight candidates in the 2002 General Election.
Amongst them Finian McGrath who was elected. Others included the now Fine Gael Councillor Molly Buckley in Laois Offaly and former Limerick Hurling manager Tom Ryan.
Karen Canning polled over 2000 votes which was impressive.
David Healy, a prominent Green member/councillor in Dublin for many years. The mention of Esperanto is interesting as a number of Founding members such as Christopher Fettes were enthusiastic about Esperanto.
Sadhbh O’Neill who famously was elected to Dublin City Council in 1991 despite not having campaigned (She was in the US at the time).
Oddly enough, that victory is attributed as part of why the Greens did not do particularly well (or as well as they thought they would) in the 1992 General Election, as some candidates/branches felt that the vote would turn out, canvass or no canvass.
The 6 Billion would have refered to money Albert promised we’d get from Europe.
Killian Forde from the 2004 LE in Donaghmede where he topped the poll and got in on the first count. He was re-elected in 2009 although his vote fell.
With Barry Desmond off to Europe, Labours chances of retaining the seat were slim, especially with the Workers Partys Eamon Gilmore on the up. A two candidate strategy made it harder and despite the stature of both candidates the seat was lost to The Workers Party.
Jane Dillon Byrne is still a councillor and the brief pen pic below only gives brief highlights of her career (another leaflet from 1985 gives a better detail) .She was also a swimming teacher…
Eamonn Murphy from the 1994 European elections. It has one of the strangest reasons to vote for a person I’ve seen.
Based on an apparition of the Blessed Virgin to a Japanese Stigmatist in 1973, accepted by the now Pope Benedict XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger) , Murphy wants to prepare for the prophesies and other forthcoming disasters by maximizing food production.
He is also a Pro Life Candidate. He had stood for the Short Lived Christian Centrist Party in 1991 and was standing for a group called
“Independent European Alliance’ in 1994.
Amongst those he outpolled in 1994 were PD candidate Stephen O’Byrnes, Fianna Fails Olive Braiden and Sinn Feins Larry O’Toole.
Gemma Hussey and Godfrey Timmins from the 1987 General Election. Having been in government since November 1982 Fine Gael lost 20 seats in the 1987 election amongst them Godfrey Timmins. The advent of the PDs hit Fine Gael badly.
Gemma Hussey only served as a TD from 1982 to 1989 yet made an impact. Hurricane Charlie is mentioned too.
A trodden Ronan Garvey (sadly I pick these things up when I see them on the ground) from the 1999 local Elections in Clontarf where he failed to be elected. The leaflet has details of the PDs proposed Transport policy for the Dublin area. Much of which has come to fruition since.
From 1987 Ruairi Quinn outlines the achievements of the Labour Government and himself in the previous four years, especially his time as Minister for Labour and Public Service.
It’s quite a good read,especially the final page which has examples of the Social Employment Scheme (SES) –which he set up in action. Also there is the work done by AnCO on the renovation and restoration of the Irish College at Louvain.
The “Did you know?..” lists some of the worthy achievements of Labour in government…. alas one “Politics have been taken out of planning” didn’t last too long.
It was a shock in 1994 when the Greens won 2 seats in the European Parliament Elections in Ireland. Patricia McKenna was seen as having a decent chance and subsequently shocked by topping the poll, however Nuala Aherns win was unexpected in many circles.
Ahern served two terms in the European Parliament having initially been elected to Wicklow Co Council for Greystones in 1991. Her Father Vincent McDowell was elected a Green councillor for Dun Laoghaire and stood in a number of General elections for the Greens (he also over the years stood for Labour and as an Independent).
Notice on the second scan the unusual Green Party Logo.
Then Independent Councillor, now Fianna Fail TD Christy O’Sullivan from 2002 in Cork South West. (Thanks to Christy for sending me these leaflets in 2002) With Neighbouring Kerry South getting all sorts due to Jackie Healy-Rae, Christy O’Sullivan polled a good 3,609 votes in 2002 before topping the polling 2007 having joined Fianna Fail.
Alex White from the 2004 Local elections where he was elected for the Terenure-Rathfarnham ward. He has since been elected to the Seanad and stood twice for Labour in Dublin South.
Another from the Alan Shatter stable of oddities, this time Alan Shatters X-Factor from the 2007 General Election…… Where he compares himself to Simon Cowell and more
Eamon Gilmores 2007 leaflet. Pat Rabbitte was still Labour Party Leader. A stylish leaflet with the continued fashion of using quotes from Journalists. Also why print a picture of yourself as a five year old?
Martin Christie was elected in the 2004 Local Elctions for Mulhuddart. However he later resigned his seats under controversial circumstances.
What a Christmas present to be sent by a kind reader…..
March the 9th 1973 a poll took place on the future of Northern Ireland.
The Ballot below shows the choices.
591,280 people voted to stay part of the UK.
6,463 voted in favour of a United Ireland….
The donor writes…
Nationalists were encouraged to boycott the poll, I can remember the graffiti for years after, ‘NO VOTE’ painted everywhere from derelict houses to trees…..
The images include the voting slip itself, the return envelope and declaration of identity which was a farcical document in the days of ‘vote early and vote often’.
The Nationalist Eddie McAteer once commented on the number of deceased Catholics who had managed to vote because their names were still on the election register;
‘The fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead!’
Former Wexford Hurling manager Tony Dempsey when he ran successfully in the 2002 General Election.
He invokes the specialness of being a Wexfordian, a heritage those of us outside Wexford tend to forget about.
Irish Election Literature 
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