The
first ever by-election held in Kerry was brought about by a judicial vacancy.
Fionán Lynch, a former senior government minister and a prominent member of
Cumann na nGaedheal (and later Fine Gael) was one of the three TDs elected for
Kerry South at the general election of 1944. Lynch, of Kilmakerin, Waterville –
who had been Minister for Education in the provisional government of 1922 and
later served in cabinet under WT Cosgrave – had been in the Dáil since its
establishment; he had represented Kerry and Kerry South since 1919 without a
break. The snap general election of 1944 had been called by Taoiseach Éamon de
Valera just a year after the previous one which had seen Fianna Fáil retain
power and secure an overall majority with over 48% of the vote. At the poll
held on 30 May 1944, Lynch, who was also a high-profile barrister, was again
returned for Kerry South alongside Fred Crowley and John B Healy of Fianna
Fáil.
Just
a few months later however, in October 1944, a vacancy arose in the Circuit
Court on the Sligo and Donegal circuit. The Fianna Fáil government looked to
the opposition benches in the Dáil to fill the judicial slot and Lynch was
appointed to the bench. Notwithstanding their political differences, the Fianna
Fáil leader, Éamon de Valera held Lynch of the opposing Fine Gael party in high
regard – they had been comrades during the Easter Rising in 1916 and remained
friends. Lynch, who had been in relatively poor health since the late 1930s –
he had been unable to campaign actively during the 1938 general election and
had stood down as Leas Ceann Comhairle after just year in the role, in 1939,
due to poor health – accepted the appointment. He was to remain a judge until
1959.
 |
| Fionán Lynch TD |
A
by-election to replace Fionán Lynch in Kerry South was set for 10 November 1944
and it immediately presented Fine Gael with a serious headache. The party was
in poor shape in Kerry generally in the 1940s – Lynch was the only Fine Gael TD
in the entire county at the time. Fine Gael and its predecessor Cumann na nGaedheal
had never elected a TD other than Lynch in Kerry South. The party hadn’t formally
contested county council elections in Kerry in either the 1930s or most of
1940s and it wasn’t until 1948 they put forward local authority candidates on
the official party ticket. The party was thus denied the valuable foundations
that council seats provide for Dáil candidates. Lynch’s departure to the
judiciary, therefore, created a huge void for his party.
The
weakness of the party organisation in Kerry South was reflected in the shambles
that was their candidate selection. A convention held on 22 October and
presided over by party leader, Richard Mulcahy, chose Donal F Collins from
Killarney to be their standard bearer. Collins, former a member of Killarney
Urban District Council – as his father, Con, had been – was an auctioneer based
on High Street. Just days into the campaign however, Collins was unceremoniously
deselected as the candidate by the Fine Gael national executive and replaced
with 28-year-old farmer and general merchant, Eoin O’Connell from Cahersiveen
whom Collins had defeated by just one vote at the convention.
In
a dramatic letter published on the front page of the Kerry Champion, Collins described how just a day after the
convention four or five delegates who were at the convention told headquarters
that he, Collins, was ‘the wrong man.’[i]
The Fine Gael general secretary, Liam Burke arrived in Killarney the following
day and met party members and later told Collins he had made enquiries and had
deduced that the candidate was ‘so unpopular’ that he would have to stand aside
and allow O’Connell to contest the by-election. Collins was further warned that
it would ‘detrimental to my business if I did not stand behind the chosen
candidate.’ Collins’ signed off his
letter with a stinging rebuke of the party leadership:
I would like in view of all facts if [Fine Gael leader] Mr Mulcahy
and the Fine Gael Organisation would put their “cards” on the table and state
publicly from what source my general unpopularity arose in two or three days or
better still to state publicly the true reason for overthrowing the decision of
the Convention. Why was my unpopularity not discussed at the Convention? That
was the place to do so prior to having my name published as a candidate.
Apparently these people have not the courage of their convictions. As my
livelihood covers all Kerry it would only be fair and just if Mr Mulcahy came
out publicly with anything he has to say against me. Perhaps not so much Mr
Mulcahy as his influential friends in Killarney. If this is Mr Mulcahy’s
“Democracy” I wonder what Dictatorship is?[ii]
Kerry Champion, 4 November 1944
Meanwhile,
a Glenflesk native and national school teacher, Donal ‘Danny Jim’ O’Donoghue,
was nominated by Fianna Fáil to contest the by-election. During the War of
Independence, O’Donoghue had been Commandant of the 2nd Battalion of
the 1st Brigade of the IRA. He taught for many years in Cork before
becoming principal of Barraduff national school in east Kerry in 1933. The only
other nominee for the by-election was Senator Edmund Horan. A native of Firies,
Horan had contested the 1943 and 1944 elections in Kerry South on behalf of the
farmers’ party, Clann na Talmhan. He won a seat on the Agricultural Panel in
the Seanad following the 1944 election. In 1942, ten farmers’ candidates had
won seats on Kerry County Council and Horan was drawing on a strong electoral
base. He told voters that the government of the day ‘was unable to undo in
twenty years what Cromwell did in a month, that was, to restore the land to the
people to whom the land belonged.’[iii]
Donal O'Donoghue TD
Though
Fianna Fáil might have been somewhat better organised than their opponents on
the ground, organising resources and money – at the height of the Second World
War – presented its own challenge. John B Healy TD was forced to write to
Fianna Fáil headquarters saying ‘I find it impossible to get petrol here. I
would be obliged if you could get some extra allowance for me.’ The response
from party general secretary, Seamus Davin, was that petrol coupons – which
were rationed during the war – could only be had from the director of elections,
Senator Fred Hawkins, who was based in the party office in Killarney.[iv]
After the by-election, the secretary of the Comhairle Dáil Cheantair, Richard
Godsil from Rathmore, said the party locally had been left with a debt of £50
and he sought the support of head office in dealing with creditors who were
itemised by category such as transport: ‘M. O’Neill, Killorglin, 4 Traps P.D.
£4.’[v]
The party however mobilised senior figures to address the all-essential
after-Mass meetings with the party’s archives holding a list of where ministers
would be dispatched, including, for example, ‘Frank Aiken – Killorglin after
last Mass.’[vi]
The
result– after what The Kerryman
called a ‘very clean and strenuous campaign’[vii]
– was a comfortable win for Fianna Fáil and Donal O’Donoghue. He polled close
to half the entire vote and picked up 10,986 first preferences ahead of Horan
on 6,795 and O’Connell on 4,822. The result created an extraordinary and
unprecedented situation in Kerry South – if not in all of Ireland – in which
Fianna Fáil were in possession of all three seats in the constituency through
O’Donoghue, Fred Crowley and JB Healy.[viii]
It was a historic and unique feat which the party would never repeat.
Copyright: An extract from 'A Century of Politics in the Kingdom: A County Kerry Compendium' by Owen O'Shea and Gordon Revington, Merrion Press, 2018, available at:
https://irishacademicpress.ie/product/a-century-of-politics-in-the-kingdom-a-county-kerry-compendium/
[i] Kerry Champion, 4 November 1944
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Correspondence
between JB Healy TD and Fianna Fáil Head Office, 27 October 1944, Fianna
Fáil Constituency Files, IE UDDA P176 UCD Archives.
[v] Letter from
Richard Godsil to Fianna Fáil Head Office, 16 July 1945, Fianna
Fáil Constituency Files, IE UDDA P176 UCD Archives, Dublin.
[vi] List of
ministers assigned to church gate collections, Fianna
Fáil Constituency Files, IE UDDA P176 UCD Archives, Dublin.
[vii] The Kerryman, 11 November 1944
[viii] The authors have not found an equivalent situation during their research.
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