One hundred years ago today, the people of Ireland participated in the last General Election as part of the [then] United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The 1918 election was the first election that every man over 21 was eligible to vote, and there was limited eligibility for women voters too[1]. In Ireland, the electorate more than doubled, increasing from almost 700,000 to almost 2 million voters[2]. Because of World War 1, it was also eight years since there had been an election.
The results were dramatic and, for Ireland, irrevocable. For the Irish Parliamentary Party (aka the Irish Party), the election was the final step in a dramatic decline in fortune over the previous four years. The party seemed to have achieved Home Rule for Ireland in the summer of 1914 when the Government of Ireland Act finally passed all stages through the British houses of parliament. However, Unionist resistance in the north of Ireland delayed the enactment of the Act, and the British government then delayed the Act until after the war in Europe was over.
The Irish Party had encouraged Irishmen to enlist , and as the war in Europe became more bloody, that stance became more unpopular. When the British government decided, against advice, to introduce militarily conscription to Ireland in 1918 (and to link the introduction of Home Rule with that of conscription), support for the Irish Party was further diminished. While the Irish Party promoted the limited form of independence provided for by the Home Rule act, Sinn Fein wanted a completely independent republic. That aim was reflected in their candidates – more than half the Sinn Fein MPs elected in 1918 had either participated in the 1916 Rising or had been arrested in the aftermath.
The prospect of conscription also helped Sinn Féin, which had been founded at the start of the century and didn’t have a single seat in the 1910 election. On the conscription issue, the Catholic Church hierarchy found itself broadly aligned with the Sinn Fein, of which it had previously been very critical.
The political changes were emphatic. Before the election, the Irish Party held 73 of the 103 available seats in Ireland – afterwards, they were down to 6, and three of those were Ulster seats where they were unopposed by Sinn Fein[3]. Even their leader, John Dillion, lost his seat in East Mayo – to Eamonn De Valera[4].
For Sinn Fein, it was a triumph. They won 73 seats (or almost 70% of the Irish MPs), and had become the largest party in Ireland. Even before polling day, the party had been gaining momentum. They had won a handful of by-elections in the years before 1918, and in the lead-up to the election, many incumbent Irish Party MPs had retired or had chosen not to run. More than a third of Sinn Fein’s MPs were elected unopposed, and had been officially confirmed as MPs a fortnight before polling day.
For the Unionists, their representation increased slightly (to about a quarter of the MPs) and was concentrated in the eastern Ulster counties. There were more incumbent MPs returned to power but that was their only comfort. Their nationalist opponents were now men who had no interest in participating in parliamentary politics to achieve their objectives. They had fought together, been jailed together and, for a few, had even escaped a death sentence together.
A hard rain was about to fall.
[1] Women over 30, with a certain amount of assets (or married to someone with same)
[2] Irish Independent, December 4th, 1918, p2.
[3] Cardinal Logue brokered an electoral pact between Sinn Fein and the Irish Party for eight constituencies in Ulster, allocating 4 seats to each party. It was an attempt to ensure that split in the nationalist vote would not allow a Unionist candidate to get elected. was a result of an electoral pact with Sinn Fein
[4] De Valera stood in three constituencies and won two of them. He was elected unopposed in East Clare and beat John Dillon in East Mayo by 8975 votes to 4514. His name was on the ballot in South Down, but that constituency was part of the electoral pact agreed by Cardinal Logue (and allocated to the Irish Party) so almost all the nationalists votes went to Jeremiah McVeigh.