An A to Z of Parties and Labels in Irish Elections from 1924 to date January 4, 2012
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Irish History, Irish Politics.Tags: Irish History, Irish Politics
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Have spent the last while trawling through old election results and was surprised at the amount of different parties and Labels that candidates put themselves forward under. This was especially the case for Local Elections.
Needless to say many of these parties / groups were not registered, so I relied on leaflets, books, old newspaper cuttings and more to get the names.
Would love to know if there are more that I’ve missed.
Agricultural League
Ailtirí na hAiséirghe
An Chomhdhail Phobail | People’s Convention
Anti-Communist
Army Wives
Businessmens Party
Cannabis Legalisation Party
Cavan Road Action Group
Chamber of Commerce
Christian Centrist Party
Christian Democrats
Christian Principles Party
Christian Solidarity Party
Cine Gael
Clann Éireann
Clann na Poblachta
Clann na Talmhan
Coiste Cearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta
Combined Residents Associations
Communist Party of Ireland
Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist)
Community Party
Community Democrats of Ireland
Conservative and Unionist
Constitutional Group
Córas na Poblachta
Cork Socialist Party
Cumann na nGaedheal
Cumann na Poblachta
Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann
Cumhacht
Democratic Left
Democratic Socialist Party
Direct Democracy Ireland
Donegal Progressive Party
Ecology Party of Ireland
Éirígí ***
Farmers
Fathers’ Rights-Responsibility Party
Fianna Fail
Fine Gael
Fis Nua
GAY (Gay and Lesbian Equality Campaign)
Green Party/ Green Alliance
GOD- (For Bible Readings in the Dail)
H-Block
Immigration Control Platform
Independent
Independent Farmer
Independent Fianna Fail (Blaney)
Independent Fianna Fail
Independent Fine Gael
Independent Health Alliance
Independent Labour
Independent Ratepayers
Independent Republican
Independent Socialist
Independent Unemployed Worker
Independent Youth
Irish Housewives Association
Irish Liberal Party
Irish Republican Socialist Party
Irish Socialist Network
Irish Solidarity Party
Irish Workers’ League
Labour
Labour Municipal Workers
League for a Workers Republic
Legion of Ex Servicemen
Libertas
Licensed Trade
Local Residents
Letterkenny Residents Party
Militant Labour
Monetary Reform Party
Muintir na hÉireann
Municipal Tennants
National Action
National Businessmen’s Association
National Corporate Party *
National Centre Party
National Labour Party
National League
National Legal Justice Action Group
National Party (1924)
National Party (Nora Bennis)
National Progressive Democrats
Natural Law Party
New Agenda**
New Island Party
New Vision
No Party Ticket
People Before Profit Alliance
Peoples Democracy
Peoples Party of Ireland
Poblacht Chríostúil
Political Organisation for Work
Planning Reform Party
Progressive
Progressive Democrats
Pro Life
Protectionist Farmer
Protestant Association
Ratepayers
Ratepayers Association
Republican Congress
Republican Labour
Republican Sinn Fein
Revolutionary Workers Party
Roscommon Hospital Action Committee
Salthill Citizens Organisation
Saor Éire*
Seniors Solidarity Party
Sinn Fein
Sinn Fein the Workers’ Party
Sligo/ Leitrim Independent Socialist Organisation
Socialist Labour Party
Socialist Party
Socialist Party of Ireland
Socialist Workers Party
South Kerry Independent Alliance
Tax Reform League
Tennants Association
Town Tennants
Transport Union
Travellers Rights
Ulster Protestant
Unemployed
Unionist
United Citizens Party
United Left Alliance
Waterford Peoples Party
The Workers’ Party
Workers and Unemployed Action Group
Workers Union
Young Ireland
* Not sure if they contested elections
** Only contested Elections in the North under that name
*** Councillor in the Republic, have contested Local Elections in the North
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Would the ULA not be on this?
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Doh! I knew there’d be at least one staring me in the face :).
Corrected now
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There was at one stage a group called “voice of wicklow” which was a splinter group from Wicklow FG after John Bruton imposed Shane Ross on them
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Was that the group George Jones and others stood for in the 1991 Local Elections?
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Yep
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There are a lot more in the North I’d reckon. The Ulster Vanguard party for one, and there’ve been quite a few evangelical christians throwing their hats in the ring over the years, especially in the locals. There was some spillage into Cavan-Monaghan in the ’77 GE. I remember a born-again neighbour and friend canvassing for a no-hoper who wouldn’t top the poll even in rural Monaghan EDs which were mostly protestant in population. He wasn’t an independent though. I’ll look it up.
No literature, sorry. Great list though, thanks.
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Scrub that. I can’t find him on any of the GE lists it must have been a local.
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I’ve all the Monaghan Local Election results from 1925 to present available in excel form at.
http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/others-project/old-local-election-results/
There’s a number of ‘PA’ (Protestant Association) candidates listed there in the 70s and 80s.
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Interesting to cross reference with the Left Archive and see how many of the formations there actually put people up for election. Few enough I’d suspect.
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Republican Clubs?
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In the 1991 locals, USI supported two candidates to run on an ‘Independent Youth’ platform – Mick Canney in Rathmines and Brian Gormley (John’s brother) in Drumcondra. I think I might still have one of the leaflets around somewhere…
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Thanks Damien….
Another group I forgot to list that stood candidates in the 1991 Local Elections were Friends of the Irish Haemophilia Society.
Their campaign message was that
“Irish People with Haemophilia suffering from HIV and AIDs are being ignored by the government – support the demand for a just settlement”.
They stood four candidates Michael Kirwin in Lucan/Palmerstown, Marie O’Connor in Clondalkin, Joe Dowling in Artane and Gay McEvoy in Cabra. None were elected.
I uploaded a very small article about them here.
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Municipal Tennants. They were a split from Municipal Lager, iirc. Never really took off. Faced a lot of opposition from the IBIW crowd (Irish beer for Irish workers).
Sorry, I’ll go now.
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Re ‘Municipal Tennants’ above: weren’t they the men that watered the workers’ beer?
There was a ‘Neil Blaney Organisation’ in rural county Galway which put forward two candidates in the 1991 local elections. On the ballot paper they would have appeared as ‘Independent’ rather than as ‘Independent Fianna Fail’, but they did have the backing of the great man himself, who was an MEP for Connacht-Ulster at the time. Their publicity was issued by the NB Org (which probably was established at the time of the Euro election).
As for the candidates, they were interesting guys in their different ways. Pat Hynes was a former garda who left the force when his republican sympathies were dramatically brought to the attention of his superiors. A year after his outing for the NBO, he was an unsuccessful general election candidate in 1992 for Dick Spring’s Labour Party. Subsequently, as an independent, he was chairman / ‘mayor’ of Galway Council.
http://www.pathynes.com/biography.html
The other man, who we’ll call Mr. B, was evidently a more loyal Blaneyite, but a less successful politician. His career wasn’t helped by a court appearance (or a non-appearance) during his 1991 election campaign (in rather different circumstances to his running mate’s earlier appearance). According to the Connacht Tribune, 28 June 1991, a bench warrant was issues for the arrest of the candidate, because he had failed to appear to answer a charge of ‘stealing a skillet pot worth £50.’ The circumstances were as follows: Getting no answer at a rural house while canvassing, and presuming the place was empty, Mr B noticed a nice flower-pot, and decided it would look even better outside his own house. He put it in the boot of the car, but was spotted by the owner, who reported him, with the consequence mentioned. There were just 145 voters in the Loughrea electoral area prepared to forgive the indiscretion and to give Mr B their No.1.
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Blaneys organisation had a host of candidates outside Donegal, although I’ve only leaflets from Blaney himself and ones from Donegal Local Elections.
The leaflets have the parties name as “Independent Fianna Fail -The Republican Party”
At one stage they even had a Senator, James Larkin. He was nominated by Haughey in 1981 as part of the deal that had Blaney support Haughey as Taoiseach, The Gregory deal got a lot more publicity though.
There were Blaney candidates in Cavan and Monaghan in local Elections in the 70s and 80s.
They had two TDs at one stage when Paddy Keaveney (Father of former FF TD Cecilia Keaveney) was elected in a 1976 by-election.
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And there was a Cannabis Legalisation Party, which stood two candidates in the 1997 general election.
There’s a bio of one of them here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_Tyaransen
Neither of the the CLP candidates was Ming, and, if I recall correctly, they had a metropolitan ‘cooler than thou’ attitude towards my fellow Roscommon man. (It happens a lot). Needless to mention, Ming whipped the two of them electorally.
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Wot? Metropolitans adopting cooler than thou attitudes towards the Rossies. Surely not, Clive? Me grandad came to the big smoke from a townland between Castleplunkett and Tulsk. So I’ve a foot in both camps.
Ming is articulate. But can get up on his high horse with the best of them. And I fear a tendency towards reaction.
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Two more:
1. Coiste Cearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta, which stood in 1969 general election and in subsequent locals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coiste_Cearta_S%C3%ADbialta_na_Gaeilge
2. Cumhacht, a successor organisation, which successfully contested local and Udaras na Gaeltachta elections in the Conamara gaeltacht
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Thanks for all that info , I’ll add them to the list.
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Is the list confinde to Southern parties or parties / groups organised on an all-ireland basis – there are a lot of Northern parties missing
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Southern/ All Ireland parties.
What prompted it was looking at the 1930 Local Election results and the raft of parties I hadn’t heard of before.
I’ll try and post those results up in the next few weeks. They are quite interesting in the number of votes garnered by The Revolutionary Workers Party and The Irish Workers League.
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A bit confused here – It’s my understanding the locals took place in 1928 and again in 1934. As an aside – this was the period of the Red Scare instigated by Cumann na nGaedheal in the run up to the 1932 general election. I was also of the opinion that Larkin’s IWL was pretty much gone by 1928. Larkin was elected as an IWL candidate in 1927 but disbarred from office after being declared a bankrupt because of his courtcase with O’Brien and he ran as an independent Labour candidate in the subsequent by-election.
There were council elections in 1950 when the Communist Party was called the Irish workers League.
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There were Local Elections in Dublin in September 1930 and also in 1925. Other parts of the country had them in 1928 and 1934.
There seemed to be a different time frame for Dublin elections than the rest of the country.
James Larkin Senior is down as a IWL candidate , whilst James Larkin Junior is down as a RWP candidate. The IWL are listed as fielding 12 candidates , whilst the RWP are down as fielding 2.
I’ll try and get all the vote details etc up at some stage in the next few weeks.
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Paddy Healy stood as an anti-H-blocks candidate in 1981 while a member of the League for a Workers Republic.
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There was also a Cork City Ratepayer’s Party which I think Cllr. Noel Collins of Midleton was involved in even though he was / is well outside the city.
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Mention of Ubi Dwyer’s Justice Party here on the Come Here To Me blog:
http://comeheretome.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/free-peace-festival-phoenix-park-august-1978/
I recall seeing him cycling around town (Dublin) on a brightly painted bike and wearing a cape (unless I’m mixing him up with someone else).
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Used to see Ubi Dwyer with his Bike around Dun Laoghaire. It is to my eternal regret that he stopped contesting elections , just as I started collecting leaflets.
His Obituary is here, he led quite an interesting and colourful life.
http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/UBI-DWYER.html
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There was a Women’s Political Party, led by Antoinette Clancy established in the early 1980s. I don’t know if they put forward any election candidates, but they were claiming up to 400 members c.1982. Waterford and Tramore were strongholds, but there were branches in Cork, Dublin and other places. Clancy was a former chair of the Women’s Political Association, but refrained from follwoing a lot of the rest of them into Fine Gael.
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington declared a Women’s Party in the late 1930s, but it had even less success.
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Great stuff thanks Clive.
I think The Womens Political Association put ads in the Munster Express in the early 80s urging voters to vote for women candidates.
I’ve also seen Ads for Women Voters to vote against the Constitution in the 1937 Referendum, produced by the National University Womens Graduate Association. Although I have a ‘Women for Lisbon’ leaflet too.
The Irish Housewives Association mentioned above would have been the forerunner of the 1970s feminist movement here.
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And then of couse there’s Sligo jazz drummer extraordinaire, Noel ‘Flukey’ Gorman who I’m fairly sure registered the All Night Sex and Drugs Party before he got serious about politics and ran in Sligo-Leitrim as an independent in the ’80s. I think he may’ve been in the DSP at some stage too?
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That’s right “The All Night Party” according to one of the early 80s Magill election books. His campaign involved blowing bubbles whilst canvassing. (bottles of bubbles)
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Wasn’t Noel a brother (or cousin at least) of RTE’s Tommy ‘Sanctamonious’ Gorman?
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