Labour party early rural support?

Seanachai · 03-03-2011 2:16pm #1

Hello , I found out recently that one of my grandfathers was a Labour party supporter. He was a farm labourer with a small amount of land himself and when I told a friend this he reckoned it was very unusual for a rural worker to support the Labour party. Does anybody have any insight into this?.

Lockstep · 03-03-2011 5:29pm

Well, at the beginning, Labour had a fair amount of support from peasants and farm labourers; TJ O'Connell was a Labour Mayo TD who was supported by this group of people.

However, Labour mostly lost the rural vote when FF brought in their programs of the 1930s; the mix of left wing policies and social conservatism was very palatable to the small farmers and peasantry. This meant that for the remainder of the 20th century, Labour was to remain an urban party.

Eliot Rosewater · 03-03-2011 6:04pm

Politics > History & Heritage. I think it'd be better here.

/mod.

brianthebard · 03-03-2011 8:10pm

Labour was formed and initially ran by the same people who organised the ITGWU, and that Union included a decent number of agricultural labourers in various parts of the country. It would have been natural of those members to vote for Labour in the early years of the state's history.

Denerick · 04-03-2011 11:37am

There is a myth out there that the labour Party exclusively attracts support from the urban proletariat. (Most of whom either don't vote or they end up voting for different people) Their voters over the past 20-30 years have been overwhelmingly middle class and Dublin based.

baalthor · 05-03-2011 3:26am

Denerick wrote: »

There is a myth out there that the labour Party exclusively attracts support from the urban proletariat. (Most of whom either don't vote or they end up voting for different people) Their voters over the past 20-30 years have been overwhelmingly middle class and Dublin based.

For the middle class part, results from the 2011 election in Dublin would suggest otherwise.

Labour's three strongest constituencies were also the three strongest total left-wing constituencies.
Dublin North-West(Finglas-Ballymun),South West (Tallaght) and South Central (Inner City-Ballyfermot-Crumlin) would generally be considered to be among the core areas for the "urban proletariat".

On the other hand, South and South East would be regarded as the strongest middle class areas and are in Labour's bottom three Dublin constituencies.
These two areas contain Dublin 4 and UCD where all the "D4 liberals" are allegedly to be found.
Labour actually polled below its national average in Dublin South, its weakest Dublin constituency and probably the most solidly middle class constituency in the whole country.

Labour Left
Dublin NW 43 69
Dublin SW 36 60
Dublin SC 35 64
Dublin NE 34 50
Dublin MW 31 55
DL 30 45
Dublin West 29 56
Dublin Central 28 60
Dublin North 26 50
Dublin SE 25 38
Dublin NC 22 48
Dublin South 18 29

CDfm · 05-03-2011 12:51pm

I came accross this before too and here is an example of it.

CDfm wrote: »

A little titbit here.

Having a look thru the Lissadell Papers on Page 26 there is a reference to Alderman Jinks recruiting the Lissadell workers to the ITGWU in 1920 and a strike.

This resulted in Sir Jossylin Gore-Booth milking a herd of cows and coming to an agreement with the workers.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/introduction__lissadell_papers_d4131_.pdf

Whilst Lissadell remained in the control of Sir Josslyn he ensured full employment, whatever the political or economic situation; when he died in 1944 the estate [still] employed 102 persons and the buildings, including the many houses and cottages, were all occupied and in good order. Unfortunately he was not able completely to avoid labour problems. In 1920 Alderman Jinks of Sligo recruited the Lissadell workers into the local branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. Shortly afterwards there was a dispute about conditions and a strike was called. Sir Josslyn's main concern was the dairy herd, which he milked unaided for several days, but the task was too much for him. He drove to the Union headquarters in Sligo and persuaded them to milk the cows to avoid unnecessary suffering, although all the milk was tipped away.

The Spring family in Kerry traditionaly hold a seat for Labour as did the Corish's in Wexford and would have needed rural support to do that.

Fianna Fail was a party with urban support .

baalthor · 06-03-2011 4:57pm

There is a story about an rural landowner who was helped out in some matter by the Labour party. He sent a thank your letter ending with:

I of course, can not vote for you but I will instruct my workforce to do so ..

Seanachai · 07-03-2011 5:11pm

Thanks , I thought he might have been the exception to the rule but it seems it wouldn't have been that unusual at the time.

who the fug · 07-03-2011 5:20pm

CDfm wrote: »

The Spring family in Kerry traditionaly hold a seat for Labour as did the Corish's in Wexford and would have needed rural support to do that.

.

Murphy in Cork West & then Cork South West were another one

Labour party early rural support?

Comments