Irish general election, 1965

Irish general election, 1965
Republic of Ireland
7 April 1965
143 of 144 seats in Dáil Éireann
72 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout 75.1%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Seán Lemass James Dillon
Party Fianna Fáil Fine Gael
Leader since 22 June 1959 1959
Leader's seat Dublin South-Central Monaghan
Last election 70 seats, 43.8% 47 seats, 32.0%
Seats before 71 48
Seats won 72 47
Seat change Increase1 Decrease1
Percentage 47.7% 34.1%
Swing Increase3.9% Increase2.1%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Brendan Corish Seán MacBride
Party Labour Party Clann na Poblachta
Leader since 1960 1946
Leader's seat Wexford N/A
Last election 16 seats, 11.6% 1 seat, 1.1%
Seats before 17 1
Seats won 22 1
Seat change Increase5 Steady 0
Percentage 15.4% 0.8%
Swing Increase3.7% Decrease0.3%

Percentage of seats gained by each of the three major parties, and number of seats gained by smaller parties and independents.
Taoiseach before election

Seán Lemass
Fianna Fáil

 Subsequent Taoiseach

Seán Lemass
Fianna Fáil

The Irish general election of 1965 was held on 7 April 1965. The newly elected members of the 18th Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 21 April when the new Taoiseach and government were appointed.

The general election took place in 42 parliamentary constituencies throughout Ireland for 144 seats in the lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann.

Campaign

The general election of 1965 was caused by the ruling Fianna Fáil party's failure to gain a seat in a by-election. The success of Eileen Desmond of the Labour Party in Cork Mid in holding a seat previously held by her husband Dan Desmond, led to an unacceptable mathematical situation with regard to the government's majority. The Taoiseach, Seán Lemass immediately dissolved the Dáil and the campaign began in earnest.

Fianna Fáil ran its campaign on its record in government. Over the last number of years the economy had seen a huge improvement and the party played up on its record in government. The party also played up heavily on the personality of the party leader with the slogan "Let Lemass Lead On". Fine Gael put forward a comprehensive manifesto, which included the establishment of a government department concerned with economic planning. However, the older, conservative members of the party did not warm to the new turn the party was taking.

Television and radio

This was the first Irish General Election to be covered on television by state broadcaster RTÉ, which had formed on 31 December 1961. Election Newsroom was broadcast live on Telefís Éireann from their Donnybrook studios in Dublin, presented by John O'Donoghue with analysis provided by John Healy (Irish Times), John O'Sullivan (The Cork Examiner), Garret FitzGerald and Professor Basil Chubb. Cameras were present in four count centres: Bolton Street (Dublin), Wexford, Cork and Monaghan. The GPO provided direct links as results were announced. Raidió Éireann provided special coverage from 3 pm on the day of the count due to the coverage on Telefís Éireann. It was a new approach to election coverage on the state's radio service, which began broadcasting in 1926.[1]

Result

18th Irish general election – 7 April 1965[2][3][4]
Party Leader Seats ± % of
seats 		First Pref
votes 		% FPv ±%
Fianna Fáil Seán Lemass 72 +2 50.0 597,414 47.7 +3.9
Fine Gael James Dillon 47 0 32.6 427,081 34.1 +2.1
Labour Party Brendan Corish 22 +6 15.3 192,740 15.4 +3.8
Clann na Poblachta Seán MacBride[5] 1 0 0.7 9,427 0.8 –0.3
Irish Workers' Party Michael O'Riordan 0 0 0 183 0.0 0
Independent N/A 2 –4 1.4 26,277 2.1 –3.5
Spoilt votes 11,544 — —
Total 144 0 100 1,264,666 100 —
Electorate/Turnout 1,683,019 75.1% —

The general election gave Fianna Fáil an extra two seats, and with it an overall majority in the Dáil. Seán Lemass continued as Taoiseach. James Dillon resigned as leader of Fine Gael immediately after the result was announced.

First time TDs

Re-elected TDs

Outgoing TDs

See also

References

  1. ↑ "RTÉ COVERAGE OF GENERAL ELECTIONS – 1965 GENERAL ELECTION". RTÉ Libraries and Archives. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  2. ↑ "18th Dáil 1965 General Election". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 31 May 2009.
  3. ↑ "Dáil elections since 1918". ARK Northern Ireland. Retrieved 31 May 2009.
  4. ↑ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, pp1009-1017 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  5. ↑ After the election, while Seán MacBride was leader of Clann na Poblachta, John Tully became leader and the sole member of the parliamentary party.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.