Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 31 August 2023

Recasting Cork: Results of the 1923 General Election

On 27 August 1923, at the conclusion of the polling for membership of Dáil Éireann in the Cork Borough (one of 30 constituencies) the ballot boxes from the different electoral areas were conveyed to the City Courthouse and launched in the Sub Sheriff’s Office.

Returning officer Mr Francis Hanrahan and his staff then checked the votes of the absent postal voters, numbering about 205 – the result of this meant their work extended into the small hours of the morning. This work was carefully performed in the presence of the authorised agents of the election candidates.

The following morning, on 28 August 1923, the boxes were brought to the Technical Institute by members of the counting staff. A total of 130 boxes were brought from one building to the other in lorries in which members of the stuff were accompanied by armed military. The first batch of boxes, twenty in number, were brought to the counting room and just after 11am the counting began. Mr Hanrahan with a legal assessor Mr William Mockler were in attendance as well as a number of Civic Guards and military were on duty inside and outside of the building.

The number of public in attendance at the start was small but grew as the day went on. The formal election of Cork City’s five elected candidates would not be made known for a considerable number of hours.

The candidates who sought election were: Alderman James J Walsh, Postmaster-General (Cumann na nGaedheal), Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, Alderman Richard H Beamish (Cork Progressive Association), Andrew O’Shaughnessy (Cork Progressive Association), Mary MacSwiney (Sinn Fein), Con Lucey (Sinn Féin), Alderman Frederick Murray (Sinn Féin), Timothy Corcoran (Farmer’s Association), Robert Day (Labour), R S Anthony (Labour), William Kenneally (Labour), Captain Jeremiah Collins (Independent), and Sir John Harley Scot (Independent). Those candidates included three outgoing members Alderman J J Walsh Robert Day and Mary MacSwiney.

The initial counting did not conclude until 7pm, and it was then learned that the total poll was 43,256 out of a register of 66,700. The required quote became 7,000 votes. At that point the election count was suspended till the following morning, 29 August. Overnight the checked ballot papers were lodged in a huge box, on which wax seals replaced and the lecture theatre was then closed and all its doors sealed. Outside the doors armed military replaced on duty and representatives of the candidates were permitted to remain within the precincts.

On the following day, 29 August, at 9am the wax seals were broken in the presence of the candidates and their representatives, and the counting was resumed. The only candidate to hit the quota was Alderman James J Walsh who had a surplus of over 10,000 votes above the quota itself. From the start of the count his heading of the poll was assured. Whereas J J Walsh knew his fate early, to reveal the other four successful candidates the count lasted all that day and night and ended at 7.30am on 30 August. Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, Alderman Richard Beamish, Mary MacSwiney and Mr Andrew O’Shaughnessy were then elected in this order.

Tensions remained high though between Sinn Féin and the local Civic Guard. Mary MacSwiney in a letter to the Cork Examiner on 30 August 1923 noted she was unhappy with the raids on Sinn Féin offices and arrests in the City; “Our agents have been arrested in Bantry, rooms rated come out and election literature seized in Clonakilty and a numerous raids and arrests have been affected in the city. Mr J Hennessy, who acted as scrutinising agent yesterday was looked for last night, and his house raided. He was fortunately not at home but as a consequence we are deprived of his services to today. Mr Sean Nolan, who is in a very serious state of health, was arrested at 5.30pm yesterday. He spent the night in the underground dungeons of the Courthouse… what is this brutality for? Just for acting as Sinn Féin director of elections”.

            On 30 August as well a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Cork Progressive Association was held evening in the Offices on the Grand Parade.

Returned TD Mr. James J Walsh for Cumann na nGaedheal was warmly received. He emphasised the fact that the verdict from Cork was an endorsement of the policy pursued by the Government during the past twelve months; “It is therefore an encouragement to them to pursue a strong, firm and just Government, discriminating impartially between all its law-abiding citizens; The combination of Cumann na nGaedheal and Progressives under one banner was a happy augury for the future progress of the city. It combined under one standard the different elements of the community, eliminating sectional entities, and, as the election showed, was endorsed by all classes in Cork”.

Alderman Beamish, who was also enthusiastically received, noted that the election result had clearly indicated one thing, that throughout the country in general, that Irish people were now determined to uphold law, order and progress and that the country was are on “the eve of a new direction of thought”, in which the consistent progress of all Ireland would be the first consideration amongst its members.

In the overall General Election result Cumann na nGaedheal took a majority of seats, which were taken in the Dáil and formed the 2^nd Executive Council of the Irish Free State on 19 September 1923. William T Cosgrave again became the President of the Executive Council.

Caption:

1217a. Front page of report on General Election 1923 (source: National Library, Dublin).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 24 August 2023

Recasting Cork: Sinn Féin Prepares for a General Election

In light of the impending General Election on 30 August 1923, the Sinn Féin election campaign was ramped up. On 24 August 1923 in the city, a public meeting was held on the Grand Parade. Speeches wero delivered by well-known supporters of the Republican movement. The Cork Examiner describes the event. The MacCurtain Pipers’ Band was in attendance. During the meeting bouquets were presented to two of the speakers. Miss Mary MacSwiney and Miss Mary Comerford. Mr Daniel Corkery occupied the chair.

Daniel Corkery, who first spoke in Irish, claimed that the election was an unfair one due to its summer date. He thanked those who were assisting their candidates in the election. He referred to the raiding of the Republican offices in Dublin, the arrest of their director of elections, and the treatment of the prisoners. He appealed to all present to keep together and to join Sinn Féin clubs.

Daniel claimed that the Labour movement had been weakened by its representatives remaining in the Dáil in the post Treaty era. He denoted that the only force in Ireland that had beaten the “capitalistic Press and Capital was the spirit of Irish Nationality”. He continued; “No one from a Republican platform wants to say anything that would injure the Labour Party or divide the ranks of Labour, but there was a terrible fight before the working man in the country”.

Mary MacSwiney, who spoke first in Irish and afterwards in English, received an ovation. She claimed that the Sinn Féin movement were asked to go into the British Empire with their heads up or their hands up with a leadership she could not trust; “We stand for a free and independent Ireland; we swore our oath to the Republic and mean to keep it. mean to make Ireland free and prosperous, and we would not be mislead into thinking that they could make Ireland prosperous by sending work out of Ireland, by sending goods made out of Ireland, and by giving unemployment doles to the people at home”.

Mary argued that the proper way to support Irish industries was by purchasing them and by protecting them and guarding them against all profiteering, and that was what Sinn Féin and the Republican Party promised them to do if they were returned at the General Election.

As regards the interned Republican prisoners in Irish gaols, Mary wanted to tell the assembled crowd that for two months the relatives of the men in Newbridge had no letters from them and had not been allowed send parcels to them. The reason was that the men tried to make a tunnel; “The men in the prisons of the Free State Government could hardly live on the food they were getting, and if they bad extra food and cigarettes they came from friends outside, who at enormous sacrifice were trying to send them a little help”.

There was one matter Mary wanted particularly to deal with. She drew attention to the fact that some of the Republican literature was printed in Manchester. She claimed that the reason they had had to get pamphlets and papers printed in Manchester was because twenty printing machines had been destroyed by the Irish Free State; “We have not been allowed to print even a little leaflet until recently, and since the election campaign began their papers had been seized and burned and their people threatened…we therefore ask them by their votes on Monday next to declare for free speech and for free press, and that we can no longer support people who have hounded the Republicans, who have burned our printing presses and destroyed our means of living, because that is not the will of the people, and the people will not stand for it”.

Mary wished to also say some words about majority rule. She maintained that she was a democrat but would not respect the Irish government giving allegiance to the King of England; “I stand for the upliftment of every man. woman and child in Ireland, for an equal chance for the poor and the rich, but if there was to be inequality that the advantage was to be given to the poor for a change… I stand for the right of every man to the inheritance of his country, that he must be a free citizen in every shape, free to educate his children as he likes, free to bring thorn not with the bare sustenance…I stand tor majority rule, but will never obey a government that gives allegiance to the King of England”.

Professor Stockley, Mr McArthur (Dublin), Mr Nolan, Mr K Walsh, and Máire Comerford also spoke, and appealed for united support for the Republican candidates. Wicklow-born Maire Comerford (1893-1982) was a leading national figure in Cumann nBan during the Irish War of Independence and her anti-Treaty stance led her to go on hunger strikes whilst imprisoned in gaol like Mary MacSwiney. In August 1923 she helped the Sinn Féin General Election campaign in Cork.

On 30 August 1923, Mary MacSwiney was elected for the Cork Borough in the general election. Her two running colleagues for Sinn Féin, Frederick Murray and Con Lucey, were unsuccessful in their quest for a seat.

Upcoming Historical Walking Tour (free, no booking required):

Sunday 27 August, Stories from Blackrock and Mahon, meet in the carpark below Blackrock Castle, 2pm.

Caption:

1216a. Mary MacSwiney, c.1920 (picture: Cork City Library).