The 1917 North Roscommon by-election was held on 3 February 1917. The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Irish Parliamentary MP, James Joseph O'Kelly. The election took place nine months after the 1916 Rising. The election was contested by Thomas Devine, standing for the Irish Parliamentary Party, who was expected to win comfortably, and Jasper Tully, a local newspaper owner who was running as an independent.
An outsider candidate was proposed as an Independent candidate: Count George Noble Plunkett; [1] the father of Joseph Plunkett, who had been executed for his role in the Easter Rising. Count Plunkett was proposed by John J. O'Kelly (Sceilg), P. T. Keohane and Fr. Michael O'Flanagan, the curate of Crossna in North Roscommon. Fr. O'Flanagan was main organiser of the election, assisted by Larry Ginnell, and many others who came from Dublin to take on the Irish Parliamentary Party.
Though often credited as Sinn Féin's first victory in a Parliamentary election, Plunkett was not a member of Sinn Féin.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sinn Féin | George Noble Plunkett | 3,022 | 55.8 | New | |
Irish Parliamentary | Thomas Devine | 1,708 | 31.5 | N/A | |
Independent | Jasper Tully | 687 | 12.7 | New | |
Majority | 1,314 | 24.3 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 5,417 | 67.7 | N/A | ||
Sinn Féin gain from Irish Parliamentary | Swing | N/A |
Arthur Joseph Griffith was an Irish writer, newspaper editor and politician who founded the political party Sinn Féin. He led the Irish delegation at the negotiations that produced the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, and served as the president of Dáil Éireann from January 1922 until his death later in August.
The Irish component of the 1918 United Kingdom general election took place on 14 December 1918. It was the final United Kingdom general election to be held throughout Ireland, as the next election would happen following Irish independence. It is a key moment in modern Irish history, seeing the overwhelming defeat of the moderate nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), which had dominated the Irish political landscape since the 1880s, and a landslide victory for the radical Sinn Féin party. Sinn Féin had never previously stood in a general election, but had won six seats in by-elections in 1917–1918. The party had vowed in its manifesto to establish an independent Irish Republic. In Ulster, however, the Unionist Party was the most successful party.
George Noble Plunkett was an Irish nationalist politician, museum director and biographer, who served as Minister for Fine Arts from 1921 to 1922, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1919 to 1921 and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann in January 1919. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1927. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Roscommon North from 1917 to 1922.
Events from the year 1918 in Ireland.
Events from the year 1917 in Ireland.
Abstentionism is the political practice of standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in the election itself. Abstentionism has been used by Irish republican political movements in the United Kingdom and Ireland since the early 19th century. It was also used by Hungarian and Czech nationalists in the Austrian Imperial Council in the 1860s.
James Nicholas Dolan was an Irish politician and TD for County Leitrim constituencies from 1918 to 1937.
John Joseph O'Kelly was an Irish republican politician, author and publisher who served as President of Sinn Féin from 1926 to 1931, Minister for Education from 1921 to 1922, Minister for Irish from 1920 to 1921 and Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1919 to 1921. He served as a Teachta Dála from 1918 to 1921 and 1922 to 1923.
Sinn Féin is the name of an Irish political party founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith. It became a focus for various forms of Irish nationalism, especially Irish republicanism. After the Easter Rising in 1916, it grew in membership, with a reorganisation at its Ard Fheis in 1917. It split in 1922 in response to the Anglo-Irish Treaty which led to the Irish Civil War and saw the origins of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two parties which have since dominated Irish politics. Another split in the remaining Sinn Féin organisation in the early years of the Troubles in 1970 led to the Sinn Féin of today, which is a republican, left-wing nationalist and secular party.
Joseph P. McGuinness was an Irish Sinn Féin politician and Member of Parliament (MP) from 1917 until his death in 1922. He is known for winning the South Longford by-election in 1917 while serving a prison sentence for his role in the Easter Rising. Michael Collins worked on his by-election campaign.
Irish republican legitimism denies the legitimacy of the political entities of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and posits that the pre-partition Irish Republic continues to exist. It is a more extreme form of Irish republicanism, which denotes rejection of all British rule in Ireland. The concept shapes aspects of, but is not synonymous with, abstentionism.
Laurence Ginnell was an Irish nationalist politician, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party for Westmeath North at the 1906 UK general election. From 1910 he sat as an Independent Nationalist and at the 1918 general election he was elected for Sinn Féin.
Michael O'Flanagan was a Roman Catholic priest, Irish language scholar, inventor and historian. He was a popular, socialist Irish republican; "a vice-president of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, he was a proponent of land redistribution." He was Gaelic League envoy to the United States from 1910 to 1912, and he supported the striking dockers in Sligo in 1913.
The 1918 East Cavan by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the United Kingdom House of Commons constituency of East Cavan on 20 June 1918. The election was caused by the death of the sitting member, Samuel Young of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
The Irish component of the December 1910 United Kingdom general election took place between 3 and 19 December, concurrently with the polls in Great Britain. Though the national result was a deadlock between the Conservatives and the Liberals, the result in Ireland was, as was the trend by now, a large victory for the Irish Parliamentary Party. The IPP supported the Liberals to form a government after the election. This was to be the party's last victory, however. Due to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the next general election would not be held until 1918, by which time events both in Ireland and Britain and outside would conspire to see the rise of a new nationalist party, Sinn Féin, and the subsequent demise of the IPP.
The 1917 East Clare by-election was held on 10 July 1917. It followed the death of the incumbent MP, Willie Redmond of the Irish Parliamentary Party, who was killed in action during the First World War. The seat had been held since its creation in 1885 by constitutional nationalist MPs, and Redmond had been unopposed in every election since 1900. The result was announced on 11 July 1917.
The 1917 South Longford by-election was held on 9 May 1917 due to the death of the incumbent Irish Parliamentary MP, John Phillips. The by-election ended in a surprise Sinn Féin victory over the Irish Parliamentary Party following a very close vote. The result was not announced until 10 May due to a recount.
This article lists Sinn Féin's election results in UK parliamentary elections.
Séamus O'Doherty was an Irish republican.