1966 Presidential Election - & DeValera almost lost it

CDfm

In 1966 , Ireland was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of 1916 .

Contesting the presidency were DeValera & Tom O'Higgins jnr and with an Electorate off 1.1 million DeValera scraped in with 50.48% of the vote.

http://electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=1966P&cons=194

10,000 Voters seperated the candidates and while the spoiled votes would not have gotten O'Hggins Elected , it would have been close.

So what happened ?

ANXIOUS

CDfm wrote: »

In 1966 , Ireland was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of 1916 .

Contesting the presidency were DeValera & Tom O'Higgins jnr and with an Electorate off 1.1 million DeValera scraped in with 50.48% of the vote.

http://electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=1966P&cons=194

10,000 Voters seperated the candidates and while the spoiled votes would not have gotten O'Hggins Elected , it would have been close.

So what happened ?

What happened? A certain C. Haughy raised the price of milk paid to farmers the week of the election.

CDfm

ANXIOUS wrote: »

What happened? A certain C. Haughy raised the price of milk paid to farmers the week of the election.

Very patrioric of Charley.

jonniebgood1

There was a piece on radio about this. I think the blame was largely put on Haughey for his management of the campaign as well as a fresher approach by Higgins. The election of 1959 had'nt been a whitewash for DeValera either as he had got 56%.

Higgins poster>


And De Valera seems to play the green card>

taken from http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/tag/1966-presidential-election/

CDfm

McEoin the FG candidate in 1959 campaigned in Cork and my mother told me that he asked the Voters to vote No in a FF proposed constitutional amendment to abolish PR in favour of the Direct First past the post vote. And, that if they were making a party choice to prioritise the No vote over a Vote for him in the presidential election.

What was O'Higgins like and what type of provenance did he have.

DeValera was ancient and must have been blind in 1966 .

pedroeibar1

CDfm wrote: »

What was O'Higgins like and what type of provenance did he have.

I met him when I was quite young. He struck me as being aloof, not interested in small boys! Lived in Dalkey, his garden is now a housing estate. He was a son of Tom O’Higgins, founder of the Blueshirts, a brother of Michael O’H. a leader of the Seanad, a nephew of Kevin O’Higgins (assassinated 1927) and an old Clongonian. His (great?) grandfather was Tim Sullivan, a Nationalist journalist, MP, pro and anti Parnellite, Lord Mayor of Dublin and author of ‘God Save Ireland’. O’Sullivan’s son, also Tim, was a Chief Justice, who upheld the ruling on the 1940 Offenses Against the State Act, which brought in the Curragh internment during the ‘40s.
As Chief Justice when signing pre-printed forms Tom O’H used to put a line through the ‘An t-Onorach’ and write underneath ‘The Hon.’ which always was noticeable.
An anecdote once told to me by a FG friend - at his first presidential campaign team meeting he gave each team member a copy of a book on JFK’s presidential election (The Making of a President?) and told them to ‘learn that!’ I think Ritchie Ryan and John Kelly were the senior members of that campaign team.
Rs
P.

CDfm

Fascinating stuff pedro.

The FG class of '66 could make a decent thread.

Also, Labours presidential support would be interesting.

MarchDub

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

And De Valera seems to play the green card>

taken from http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/tag/1966-presidential-election/

That sure brought back memories - FF always used those colours. I can remember the General Election around the same time but previous to this - 1965? - had a similar green circle with orange and white rim and the words "Let Lemass Lead On" written inside the circle.

So I suppose if it worked for Lemass...