IRISH MY ERSE!

As I write, it seems that the 84 year old Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, is in denial over the results of the Presidential and Parliamentary elections just held, and that he is unwilling to cede power to the election winners.

In 1918, six years before Mr Mugabe was born, a General Election was held in Ireland and the losers, their successors and apologists are still in denial about the results, and they never ceded  power to the winners.

In 1918 Sinn Fein at a General Election won 73 of Ireland's 105 Parliamentary Seats.

The Irish Nationalist Party took a total of 6 seats, 5 of them in Ulster, some of them with the agreement of Sinn Fein.

The Ulster Unionists won 26  seats.

Sinn Fein took 47% of the VOTES CAST.

But as they took 25 seats where there was no contest, the careless student or the disingenuous commentator, such as Queen's University Belfast Professor Richard English, may be heard saying "Sinn Fein had the support of ONLY 47% of the public."

In 1886 and 1906 the Irish Parliamentary Party took over 75% of Irish Seats, but with less votes than the Unionist Party - because, and this will surprise careless students, but will scarcely have escaped such disingenuous scholars as Professor Richard English, the Irish Party took most of its seats UNOPPOSED.

Within a month of the 1918 Election. Edward MacLysaght (1887-1986) noted the way some British commentators were misrepresenting the electoral victory of Sinn Fein.

This is part of his Diary entry for 28 January 1919 -

"Just one thing occurs to me before I put this diary away: an example of how our claim for self-determination of small nations - championed by Britain in the case of the Czechs - is misrepresented by politicians and newspapers there. In quoting statistics for last year's general election they give the total votes cast for and against Sinn Fein only in contested elections, completely ignoring the 25 constituencies where Sinn Fein candidates were returned unopposed, thus presenting an entirely misleading picture."

In 1978 Edward MacLysaght published "CHANGING TIMES - Ireland since 1898" which quoted that diary entry. MacLysaght was a most interesting character with a very varied career. He was also possessed of perhaps the most gentemanly nature of any of his contemporaries in Europe.

In the UK General Election of 2005 the winning Labour Party took 35.2% of the votes cast. . In the 12 UK General Elections between 1964 and 2005 the average percentage of the votes cast for the winning party was 42.04%.All constituencies, except that of the incumbent Speaker were contested in each of the 12 General Elections..

For a more extended commentary see "DID SINN FEIN REALLY WIN THE !918 GENERAL ELECTION?" on this Blog for 13/03/06.

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