In their own words ... a selection of the political quotes which feature in ‘A Century of Politics in the Kingdom: A County Kerry Compendium’ by Owen O’Shea and Gordon Revington (Merrion Press) which will be launched at Tralee Library on 18^th October 2018 at 7.00pm.

‘He is a most successful merchant in that town, and a wave of porter—you can describe it as nothing else—landed him safely on the county council bench.’

The Earl of Mayo tells the House of Lords about the 1908 unseating of county councillor, JK O’Connor of Castleisland, following a court petition which heard allegations of bribery, intimidation and plying voters with drink.

‘I credit the supporters of the Treaty with being as honest as I am, but I have a sound objection to it. I think it is wrong; I have various reasons for objecting to it, but the main one is that, in my opinion, it was wrong against Ireland, and a sin against Ireland ... We are now asked not only to acknowledge the King of England’s claim to be King of Ireland, but we are asked to swear allegiance and fidelity in virtue of that claim ... Ireland has been fighting England and, as I understood it, the grounds of this fight always were that we denied the right of England’s King to this country.’

Cahersiveen native, Dr Ada English TD, representing the NUI constituency, speaks against the Treaty in 1922

Dr Ada English TD

‘There are some places in this country where the duty of compiling the Parliamentary Register devolves on the Civic Guards. Kerry is one of these places. My experience is that they work in a very partial manner. They disfranchised hundreds of Fianna Fáil voters in Kerry at the last election and they went so far as to tear down Fianna Fáil posters from the gates at some of the polling booths. I can only come to the conclusion that they are a semi-political body, and I leave it at that.’

Kerry South Fianna Fáil TD, Thomas O’Reilly in the Dáil in 1928

‘… all drinks at dances should be abolished. When I say that, you can call me a pussyfoot, if you like, but I am very emphatic about the abuses that have taken place at dances.’

Fianna Fáil TD for Kerry South, Fred Crowley on the demon drink

‘As far as I can see, Government Ministers resident in Dublin consider Dublin as Ireland. They forget that we exist and that there are such places as Kerry.’

Jack Flynn, Kerry South Independent TD, speaks on the nomination of Taoiseach in 1948

‘Without me in the Senate, the people would be like sheep without a shepherd.’

Fianna Fáil’s Kit Ahern speaking during the 1969 general election campaign

‘Vote number 1 Tom McEllistrim and number 2 Kit Ahern in the order of your choice.’

The reported words of an agent for Fianna Fáil TD, Tom McEllistrim in Abbeydorney during the 1973 general election campaign in which there was a dispute between the candidates over being given equal billing in election material.

‘If Ronald Reagan, at seventy-four, can run America, I think, at seventy-two, I can represent the people of south Kerry.’

Labour TD for Kerry South, Michael Moynihan on seeking re-election to the Dáil at the 1989 general election

‘I have rarely been asked by RTÉ on to a major programme. I wouldn’t have a sexy enough image for the some of the fellows out in Donnybrook; but if I held different views, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would be on.’

John O’Donoghue TD, speaking in 1994

‘For a paper to be valid it must have recorded on it a first preference’

How a Kerry candidate rewrote the Irish electoral rulebook

'Wednesday, 10 February 2016: Ireland was deep in the midst of a general election campaign. The country’s lampposts were strewn with election posters, the party leaders’ debates were in full swing and door-to-door canvassing was continuing in earnest. Despite expectations that the country would go to the polls in the autumn of 2015, the Fine Gael-Labour government led by Enda Kenny had stumbled on into the new year until Kenny finally dissolved the Dáil on the morning of 3 February. His administration had lasted its full five-year term despite inheriting a bankrupt country and having to implement one austerity budget after another. Fianna Fáil, devastated at the previous election, were plotting a comeback. The long-anticipated campaign was well underway, and the ballots were due be cast on polling day which had been set for 26 February. But two weeks before the voters went to the polls and the shape of the new Dáil was revealed, they were already counting votes in Kerry. The tallymen and tallywomen were busy scrutinising bundles of ballot papers at the John Mitchel’s GAA clubhouse on the outskirts of Tralee. Apart from party apparatchiks from the constituency, the count centre was teeming with barristers and legal eagles from the party’s head offices. The county solicitor was present. So too several county councillors and seasoned election observers and psephologists like Fianna Fáil’s Teddy Healy, Fine Gael’s Frank Quilter and Labour’s Jerry Mason, party loyalists who would ordinarily have been immersed in campaigning for the general election. But it wasn’t general election ballots which were being counted in the spacious sports hall a fortnight ahead of the rest of the country. Instead those gathered were re-examining several thousand ballot papers which had been cast almost two years before and which had been the subject of a ground-breaking and protracted legal battle which went all the way to the highest court in the land, blowing a gaping hole in the way in which votes had been counted in Ireland for decades, resulting in the rewriting of the Irish electoral rulebook and changing the way elections are run in Ireland forever.'

(Extract from 'A Century of Politics in the Kingdom: A County Kerry Compendium' by Owen O'Shea and Gordon Revington. Launching from Merrion Press on 18th October 2018. Pre-order your copy now on: https://irishacademicpress.ie/product/a-century-of-politics-in-the-kingdom-a-county-kerry-compendium/)