The Irish Election of 1918

The December 1918 election for the House of Commons in Westminster is regarded by some as the defining act of Irish self-determination, as the last occasion when the whole of Ireland voted on the same day. This is not true. The most recent occasion when the whole of Ireland voted in an election on the same day was the European Parliament election of 1994 (in fact since a number of constituencies were not contested in 1918, 1994 is a rather better barometer of the opinion of the island as a whole), and the last time the island voted on the same day for anything at all was in May 1998. In terms of self-determination, international practice both before and since prefers plebiscites to elections for the purpose of self-determination, and it's quite clear that the two referenda held in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on the same day to ratify the Good Friday Agreement in May 1998 are much closer to best practice (not to mention more recent) than was the 1918 election.

However, it would be foolish not to acknowledge the central place of the 1918 election in determining the future course of Irish history. As one looks down the names of successful candidates, the governments of both parts of Ireland for the next thirty or forty years emerge. One side points out that Sinn Fein won 73 seats out of 105, an overwhelming mandate. Opponents point out that Sinn Fein received less than half the popular vote. As always the truth is in between - 25 seats were won by Sinn Fein unopposed, so we will never know what the true level of popular support for the party was. See also the reaction of a former British Prime Minister.

The full set of constituency results for all 103 Irish constituencies (two of which elected two MPs) is given below. Sinn Fein won 73 seats out of 105 (and they constituted themselves as the first Dáil); Unionists won 22, plus 3 from the satellite "Labour Unionist" grouping; the Irish Nationalist Party won 6 seats in Ireland, plus also a seat in Liverpool; and one independent Unionist was elected from Dublin University (ie Trinity College Dublin). The total vote (bearing in mind that Sinn Fein won 25 seats without a contest) was as follows:
 

Sinn Fein 476,087 46.9%
Unionists 257,314 25.3%
Nationalists 220,837 21.7%
"Labour Unionists" 30,304 3.0%
Labour 12,164 1.2%
Ind Un 9,531 0.9%
Ind Nats 8,183 0.8%
Ind Lab 659 0.1%
Ind 436 0.0%

It seems pretty certain that Sinn Féin would have had a majority of the votes if all the seats had been contested. In the contested seats where they won, the total valid vote was 617,262 of an electorate of 907,903 (68.0%); and SF got 414,394 votes out of 619,649 (66.9%). The 25 uncontested constituencies had a total electorate of 474,778; if we assume an identical average turnout and SF vote share, that gives 322,790 extra votes cast, 216,703 for SF and 106,087 for others. This gives SF at least 692,790 votes of a notional Ireland-wide total of 1,306,465, or at least 53.0%. The 66.9% vote share for SF in constituencies they would have won is a very conservative estimate; in nine of the contested constituencies they got over 80% of the vote and their likely vote share in the uncontested seats must be nearer that end of the scale. For their total vote share to be less than 50% (assuming the 68.0% turnout) their vote share in the 25 uncontested seats would have had to be an unrealistically low 54.7%.

If one looks only at the nine counties of the historic province of Ulster, the total vote was (with two Cavan constituencies uncontested):
 

Unionists 234,376 49.8%
Sinn Fein 110,032 23.4%
Nationalists 70,899 15.1%
"Labour Unionists" 30,304 6.4%
Labour 12,164 2.6%
Ind Un 8,738 1.9%
Ind Nats 2,602 0.6%
Ind Lab 659 0.1%
Ind 436 0.1%

It should be borne in mind that there was a limited electoral pact between SF and Nationalists; the Nationalists gave SF a clear run in Tyrone North-West and instructed their supporters to vote SF in Fermanagh South and Londonderry City; meanwhile SF instructed their supporters to vote Nationalist in Armagh South, Down South, Tyrone North-East and Donegal East. The pact broke down in Down East where a Unionist won by splitting the difference. For the six counties which formed the future Northern Ireland, the total vote was:
 

Unionists 225,082 56.2%
Sinn Fein 76,100 19.0%
Nationalists 44,238 11.1%
"Labour Unionists" 30,304 7.6%
Labour 12,164 3.0%
Ind Un 8,738 2.2%
Ind Nat 2,602 0.6%
Ind Lab 659 0.2%
Ind 436 0.1%

Here then are the full results from each constituency, with the name of the winning candidate in each case.
 

Constituency Population Electorate Successful candidate
Sinn Fein
Unionist
Nationalist
Labour
Other
Antrim East 53700 24798 Lt. Col. Robert Chaine Alexander McCalmont
861
15206
     
Antrim Mid 44405 18032 Major the Hon. Robert William Hugh O'Neill
2791
10711
     
Antrim North 43487 19110 Major Peter Kerr Kerr-Smiley
2673
9621
     
Antrim South 52272 23235 Capt. Charles Curtis Craig
2318
13270
     
Armagh Mid 39495 17339 James Rolston Lonsdale
5689
8431
     
Armagh North 46048 19529 Lt. Col. William James Allen
2860
10239
     
Armagh South 34748 15905 Patrick Donnelly
79
 
4345
   
Belfast Cromac 48537 21673 William Arthur Lindsay
997
11459
 
2508
 
Belfast Duncairn 44080 19085 Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Henry Carson
271
11637
2449
   
Belfast Falls 37749 15756 Joseph Devlin
3245
 
8488
   
Belfast Ormeau 35257 16343 Thomas Moles
338
7460
   
4833 (Ind U)
Belfast Pottinger 39173 17084 Capt. Herbert Dixon
393
8574
 
2513
659 (Ind Lab)
Belfast St Anne's 40430 18693 Thomas Henry Burn
1341
LabU 9155
   
1752 (Ind U)
Belfast Shankill 50647 22971 Samuel McGuffin
534
LabU 11840
 
3674
 
Belfast Victoria 47260 19494 Thompson Donald
539
LabU 9309
 
3469
 
Belfast Woodvale 43994 19802 Robert John Lynn
1247
12232
     
Carlow 35253 16133 James Lennon
(unopposed)
       
Cavan East 44215 21148 Arthur Griffith
(unopposed)
       
Cavan West 46958 22270 Peter Paul Galligan
(unopposed)
       
Clare East 52225 23511 Eamon de Valera
(unopposed)
       
Clare West 52007 21674 Brian O'Higgins
(unopposed)
       
Cork city* 102435 45017 James Joseph Walsh & Liam de Roiste
20654
2386.5
7321
   
Cork county East 43264 19022 David Rice Kent
(unopposed)
       
Cork county Mid 41226 16638 Terence Joseph McSwiney
(unopposed)
       
Cork county North 42744 17949 Patrick O'Keefe
(unopposed)
       
Cork county North-East 44272 18239 Thomas Hunter
(unopposed)
       
Cork county South 38941 17593 Michael Collins
(unopposed)
       
Cork county South-East 39634 17419 Diarmuid Christopher Lynch
(unopposed)
       
Cork county West 39588 16659 Sean Hayes
(unopposed)
       
Donegal East 39643 16015 Edward Joseph Kelly
46
4797
7596
   
Donegal North 41065 17538 Joseph O'Doherty
7003
 
3075
   
Donegal South 41490 16894 Peter Joseph Ward
5787
 
4752
   
Donegal West 46339 19296 Joseph Aloysius Sweeney
6712
 
4116
   
Down East 39196 17846 David Douglas Reid
3876
6007
4362
   
Down Mid 34942 17195 Sir James Craig
707
10639
     
Down North 38713 18399 Thomas Watters Brown  
9200
   
2153 (Ind U)
Down South 46521 18708 Jeremiah MacVeagh
33
5573
8756
 
436 (Ind)
Down West 44931 17997 Daniel Martin Wilson
1725
10559
     
Dublin city Clontarf 32051 14588 Richard James Mulcahy
5974
 
3228
   
Dublin city College Green 50665 21414 Sean Thomas O'Kelly
9662
     
2853 (Ind Nat)
Dublin city Dublin Harbour 47461 19520 Philip Shanahan
7708
 
5386
   
Dublin county Pembroke 38224 17698 Desmond Fitzgerald
6114
4138
2629
   
Dublin county Rathmines 43277 18841 Sir Maurice Edward Dockrell
5566
7400
1780
   
Dublin city St James's 35423 13121 Joseph McGrath
6256
     
1556 (Ind Nat)
Dublin city St Michan's 45500 17642 Michael Staines
7553
 
3996
   
Dublin city St Patrick's 47691 18785 Countess Constance de Markievicz
7835
 
3752
 
312 (Ind Nat)
Dublin city St Stephen's Green 46011 19759 Thomas Kelly
8461
2755
2902
   
Dublin county North 49345 19799 Frank J. Lawless
9138
 
4428
   
Dublin county South 41548 17829 George Gavan Duffy
5133
4354
3819
   
Dublin University**   4541 Rt Hon Arthur Warren Samuels & Sir Robert Henry Woods  
1904
   
793 (Ind U); 257 (Ind Nat) 
Fermanagh North 31104 14496 Edward Mervyn Archdale
6236
6768
     
Fermanagh South 30732 13962 Sean O'Mahoney
6673
4524
132
   
Galway Connemara 56054 24956 Padraic O'Maille
11754
 
3482
   
Galway East 41235 17777 Liam Joseph Mellows
(unopposed)
       
Galway North 44390 21036 Dr Bryan Cusack
8896
 
3999
   
Galway South 40545 18507 Frank Fahy
10621
 
1744
   
Kerry East 39601 17222 Pierce Beaslai
(unopposed)
       
Kerry North 37777 17600 James Crowley
(unopposed)
       
Kerry South 38740 16835 Finian Lynch
(unopposed)
       
Kerry West 43573 18853 Austin Stack
(unopposed)
       
Kildare North 30630 13274 Daniel Buckley
5979
 
2722
   
Kildare South 35997 13925 Art O'Connor
7104
 
1545
   
Kilkenny North 38024 16113 William Thomas Cosgrave
(unopposed)
       
Kilkenny South 36938 16410 James O'Mara
8685
 
1855
   
King's County*** 56832 25702 Dr Patrick McCartan
(unopposed)
       
Leitrim 63582 30079 James Nicholas Dolan
17711
 
3096
   
Limerick City 47246 17121 Michael Collivet
(unopposed)
       
Limerick county East 47514 21095 Dr Richard Hayes
12750
 
3608
   
Limerick county West 48309 22562 Cornelius Collins
(unopposed)
       
Londonderry city 40780 16736 Prof. Eoin MacNeill
7335
7020
120
   
Londonderry county North 52957 21306 Hugh Alfred Anderson
3951
10530
     
Londonderry county South 46888 21199 Denis Stanislaus Henry
3425
8942
3981
   
Longford 43820 20449 Joseph McGuinness
11122
 
4173
   
Louth 63665 29176 John Joseph O'Kelly
10770
 
10515
   
Mayo East 46729 21635 Eamon de Valera
8975
 
4514
   
Mayo North 47854 21212 Dr John Crowley
7429
 
1761
   
Mayo South 48963 21567 William Sears
(unopposed)
       
Mayo West 51118 21667 Joseph McBride
10195
 
1568
   
Meath North 33034 14716 Liam Joseph Mellows
6982
 
3758
   
Meath South 32057 14716 Edmund John Duggan
6371
 
2680
   
Monaghan North 36512 16175 Ernest Blythe
6842
4497
2709
   
Monaghan South 34943 16164 Sean Francis MacEntee
7524
 
4413
   
National University of Ireland   3819 Prof. Eoin MacNeill
1644
 
813
   
Queen's County**** 55628 26063 Kevin Christopher O'Higgins
13452
 
6480
   
Queen's University of Belfast   2039 Sir William Whitla
118
1487
     
Roscommon North 44546 21258 Count George Noble Plunkett
(unopposed)
       
Roscommon South 47302 22093 Harry James Boland
10685
 
4233
   
Sligo North 42595 18448 John Joseph Clancy
9030
 
4242
   
Sligo South 39731 18003 Alex McCabe
9113
 
1988
   
Tipperary East 41414 16232 Pierce McCann
7487
 
4794
   
Tipperary Mid 38294 17458 Seamus Aloysius Burke
(unopposed)
       
Tipperary North 36608 16455 Joseph McDonagh
(unopposed)
       
Tipperary South 36117 14716 Patrick James Moloney
8744
 
2701
   
Tyrone North-East 47358 23023 Thomas James Stanislaus Harbison
56
6681
11605
   
Tyrone North-West 47240 22182 Arthur Griffith
10442
7696
     
Tyrone South 48067 22465 William Coote
5347
10616
   
2602 (Ind Nat)
Waterford city 28881 12063 Capt. William Archer Redmond
4431
 
4915
   
Waterford county 57432 24439 Cathal Brugha
12890
 
4217
   
Westmeath 56326 24014 Laurence Ginnell
12435
 
3458
 
603 (Ind Nat)
Wexford North 50690 23022 Roger Mary Sweetman
10162
 
7189
   
Wexford South 51583 23168 Dr James Ryan
8729
 
8211
   
Wicklow East 34570 15241 Sean Etchingham
5916
2600
2466
   
Wicklow West 26141 11673 Robert Childers Barton
6239
 
1370
   
Total (32 counties) 4,392,746 1,937,663  
476087
257314
220837
12164
 

* Cork city was a two-seat constituency, where each voter had two votes. Votes given here are the average for the two candidates from each party.
** Dublin University was a two-seat constituency elected by Single Transferable Vote. The votes given here for Unionists are the aggregate of two candidates, of whom one (Samuels) was successful. Sir Robert Woods was an Independent Unionist.
*** King's County is now County Offaly.
**** Queen's County is now County Laois.

All figures from Brian Walker's Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801-1922 and (HC 1918 xix (138)) 944-7, with thanks to David Boothroyd and also to Leslie Raphael for pointing out some errors.


See also: Westminster elections 1885-1910 | The 1918 election | Dáil elections since 1918 | Westminster elections since 1920 | Senate of Southern Ireland 1921 | Irish Senate elections in 1925 | Northern Ireland House of Commons | Northern Ireland Senate

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Nicholas Whyte, 19 December 2000; modified Saturday, March 25, 2006



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