1966 Irish presidential election

none November 2021 November 2021 1966 Irish presidential election Ireland presidential no 1959 Irish presidential election 1959 1973 Irish presidential election 1973 1 June 1966 65.4% ( 7.1 pp) 1st preference Éamon de Valera, President of Ireland, in 1960s (43915959314).jpg 130 120 160 0 3 Éamon de Valera Fianna Fáil 558,861 (50.5%) Thomas O'Higgins, 1954 (cropped).png 120 120 160 0 0 Tom O'Higgins Fine Gael 548,144 (49.5%) File:1966 Irish Presidential Election.svg President Éamon de Valera Fianna Fáil Éamon de Valera Fianna Fáil The 1966 Irish presidential election was held on Wednesday, 1 June 1966. It was contested between the incumbent president Éamon de Valera, representing Fianna Fáil, and Tom O'Higgins of Fine Gael. De Valera, one of the most prominent figures in 20th-century Irish politics and figurehead of Ireland's old guard, sought a second term at the age of 83, while O'Higgins represented a younger generation seeking political change. The election was notable for its extremely narrow outcome, with de Valera winning by a slim margin of just 10,717 votes (50.5% to 49.5%). The election held symbolic significance, occurring not only on the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising (an event in which de Valera had been a prominent leader) but also in the wake of the 1960 United States presidential election, where the young, charismatic Irish-American Catholic John F. Kennedy was the victor. Both events influenced the election and helped shape the narrative that the election was a battle between Ireland's different generations. Nomination process Under Article 12 of the Constitution of Ireland, a candidate for president may be nominated by: at least twenty of the 204 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or at least four of 31 councils of the administrative counties, including county boroughs, or themselves, in the case of a former or retiring president. On 27 April, the Minister for Local Government made the order for the presidential election, with noon on 10 May as the date for nominations, and 1 June as the date of polling.Presidential election The Irish Times 28 April 1966 Fianna Fáil As president, Éamon de Valera had the right to nominate himself for a second term, but he chose to be nominated by Fianna Fáil, the party he had led from 1926 until his election in 1959.https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/how-dev-almost-lost-the-1966-presidential-election-1.3601119 How Dev almost lost the 1966 presidential election Ray Ryan 20 August 2018 25 August 2018 The Irish Times 20 August 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180820121655/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/how-dev-almost-lost-the-1966-presidential-election-1.3601119 live Then Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach Seán Lemass had urged de Valera not to retire, as he had been considering.Why Lemass urged de Valera to stay The Irish Times 10 May 1966 De Valera's campaign manager was Charles Haughey, later to become Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach. Fine Gael right horizontal 320 Seán MacBride circa 1947.jpg John A. Costello, 1948.png Seán MacBride John A. Costello center centre Before the election, O'Higgins unsuccessfully proposed that Fine Gael nominate Seán MacBride to challenge the incumbent, Éamon de Valera.https://www.dib.ie/biography/ohiggins-thomas-francis-a9313 O'Higgins, Thomas Francis Maume Patrick Costello Kevin June 2010 Dictionary of Irish Biography 6 December 2022 MacBride was not a member of Fine Gael but had worked with the party during the 1950s, serving as Minister for External Affairs in the Inter-Party Government led by Fine Gael's John A. Costello. MacBride's involvement with Fine Gael had been strategic, allowing him to advance his policy agenda while maintaining his independence from the party's core ideology. MacBride's background was firmly rooted in Irish republicanism: he was a prominent figure in the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the 1920s and the son of Maud Gonne and John MacBride, both influential figures in the independence movement. This background gave him significant republican credentials, which some in Fine Gael saw as an asset for countering Éamon de Valera's own republican legacy. By suggesting MacBride as a candidate, O’Higgins and others within Fine Gael aimed to present a challenger who could contend with de Valera on Irish nationalism. However, the idea of Fine Gael running a republican was inherently a fundamentally contentious one, and was rejected. After the MacBride suggestion was declined, O'Higgins encouraged former Taoiseach John A. Costello to enter the race before ultimately being persuaded to stand as Fine Gael's candidate himself. Gerard Sweetman served as his election director.Presidential nomination papers handed in The Irish Times 11 May 1966 Although O'Higgins was seen as a young liberal, his family background was steeped in Fine Gael tradition and conservativism. His father Thomas F. O'Higgins, his brother Michael, his sister-in-law Brigid Hogan-O'Higgins, and his uncle Kevin had all been elected to the Dáil for Fine Gael or its predecessor Cumann na nGaedheal. Both his father and uncle had also served as cabinet ministers. Additionally, one of his great-grandfathers, Timothy Daniel Sullivan, was a Fenian poet and nationalist. Independent bids Independent broadcaster and genealogist Eoin "the Pope" O'Mahony, who had sought and failed to be nominated in 1959, tried again, unsuccessfully. He wrote to local authorities and was allowed to address eleven. He fell short of the requisite four nominations: only North Tipperary County Council vote in his favour,O'Mahony still seeks nomination The Irish Times 29 April 1966 and later reversed the decision; Wicklow County Council fell one vote short.Lysaght Charles 'The Pope' v Dev: An Irishman's Diary on Eoin O'Mahony and the presidential election of 1966 https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-pope-v-dev-an-irishman-s-diary-on-eoin-o-mahony-and-the-presidential-election-of-1966-1.3625846 The Irish Times 26 September 2022 en 11 September 2018 Campaign RTÉ decision not to cover campaign O'Higgins' campaign was met with immediate difficulty when, at the outset, de Valera declared that he would not conduct a campaign himself, believing that the office of President should be above party politics. In response, Ireland's national radio and television broadcaster RTÉ decided it could not (or would not), cover O'Higgins campaigning as this would be unbalanced in their view. Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrove responded by arguing that this was unjust, as although de Valera was not formally campaigning, he regularly appeared on RTÉ radio and television in his capacity as president. RTÉ, however, did not change its position. John F. Kennedy-influenced O'Higgins campaign O'Higgins carried out a grassroots campaign that saw him attend over 130 public meetings across the Republic of Ireland, covering an estimated 22,000 miles around the country over five weeks, reportedly attending as many as three rallies a night. Fine Gael presented O'Higgins and his wife Terry as Irish analogues of John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie Kennedy, emphasising their comparative youth to the elderly de Valera. Campaign ads for O'Higgins prominently featured images of him surrounded by Terry and their seven children in shots designed to evoke the spirit of Camelot that had earned the Kennedys much popularity earlier in the decade. The general thrust of the campaign was that O'Higgins represented the future in contrast to the nostalgia of de Valera. Campaign manager Gerald Sweetman described the campaign as expressing "the need for a youthful, forward looking president to personify the real Ireland and what it can best contribute to modern civilisation". An example of O'Higgins' attempt to emulate modern American politics was seen on 28 May 1966, when a light aircraft dropped balloons bearing campaign slogans onto the city of Limerick during an O'Higgins motorcade procession. Observing these new tactics, the journalist John Healy of The Irish Times observed "The Fine Gael tail is up. It is running as it has not run for a long time. It will be an interesting finish indeed". De Valera response Polling was not yet a feature of Irish politics in 1966; instead parties still generally relied on their constituency branches to provide a sense of grassroots sentiment. When Fianna Fáil received feedback from their branches about the O'Higgins campaign, they became highly concerned. Although de Valera remained officially committed to not campaigning, he began to make several public appearances on the pretence of commemorating 1916. De Valera's campaign manager was then Minister for Agriculture and future leader of Fianna Fáil Charles Haughey. Responding to the momentum of the O'Higgins campaign, Haughey announced £5.5 million in spending targeted at farmers just five days before voting began. Fianna Fáil leader and de Valera protege Sean Lemass declared that a de Valera victory would be "an affirmation by the people that the aims for our country which have directed him throughout his life remain constant, and that patriotism is as relevant in the island of 1966 as it was in 1916". Result Nominated by Éamon de Valera Oireachtas: Fianna Fáil 558861 Fianna Fáil Tom O'Higgins Oireachtas: Fine Gael 548144 Fine Gael 9910 1709161 http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/migrated-files/en/Publications/LocalGovernment/Voting/FileDownLoad%2C661%2Cen.pdf Presidential Elections 1938–2011 Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government 25 August 2018 26 20 December 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20171220201718/http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/migrated-files/en/Publications/LocalGovernment/Voting/FileDownLoad,661,en.pdf live Results by constituency ConstituencyDe ValeraO'HigginsVotes%Votes%Carlow–Kilkenny21,33253.318,72546.7Cavan12,54250.212,43149.8Clare19,99264.211,13235.8Cork Borough18,12948.519,28151.5Cork Mid17,53248.019,01552.0Cork North-East21,20451.220,17548.8Cork South-West11,59046.913,13153.1Donegal North-East13,54060.28,96739.8Donegal South-West12,78154.210,80445.8Dublin County9,84245.012,01655.0Dublin North-Central20,30041.428,67658.6Dublin North-East10,20242.213,99557.8Dublin North-West13,95444.917,14955.1Dublin South-Central10,55440.015,84160.0Dublin South-East14,76442.819,69257.2Dublin South-West19,65644.524,55455.5Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown13,86937.722,94562.3Galway East20,62156.415,95143.6Galway West11,79360.67,67439.4Kerry North11,33455.79,01644.3Kerry South11,08355.98,75944.1Kildare16,02252.114,70547.9Laois–Offaly19,04648.720,07551.3Limerick East17,00253.414,82246.6Limerick West13,71957.210,26242.8Longford–Westmeath14,95150.414,74049.6Louth13,51954.011,52346.0Mayo North9,87855.08,09645.0Mayo South12,59848.913,16151.1Meath13,36857.59,89142.5Monaghan11,70050.611,40849.4Roscommon15,65551.714,64648.3Sligo–Leitrim13,25150.612,91849.4Tipperary North12,58955.210,20944.8Tipperary South19,30058.413,74541.6Waterford13,33455.010,91345.0Wexford15,26850.115,20349.9Wicklow11,04748.111,89851.9Total558,86150.5548,14449.5 Aftermath The President expressed his satisfaction at securing victory in his final election, remarking, "even though it was only by a short head," and explained his decision not to nominate himself. He emphasised that doing so would have been disingenuous, as no one could realistically expect to win the presidency without the support of a political party or organisation. Seán Lemass interpreted the result as a "tribute to a man who had rendered exceptional national service" and a clear indication of the people's confidence in his ability to carry out the presidential duties in a manner that would reflect positively on the nation. In his autobiography, A Double Life, O'Higgins reflected decades later on his performance in the 1966 presidential race: He believed he had conducted himself honourably and maintained his integrity throughout the contest. He wrote that the election was "a close-run thing", invoking the words used by the Duke of Wellington to describe his victory at Waterloo. His vote remains the highest election result a Fine Gael candidate has received in an Irish presidential election. References collapsed Category:1966 elections in the Republic of Ireland Category:1966 in Irish politics Category:Charles Haughey Category:Éamon de Valera Category:Presidential elections in Ireland Category:June 1966 in Europe