THE attachment of all the main parties to the "liberal agenda" left half the Irish people without a political voice after the divorce referendum, according to Mrs Nora Bennis. She formed the National Party, which fielded l6 candidates in the election, to fill this void.
Mr Gerard Casey, a philosophy lecturer, shares many of her views, although his Christian Solidarity Party has a more cerebral approach to politics. It fielded eight candidates.
Between them they had candidates in just overhalfthe constituencies. Their first-preference vote was under 30,000, an average of 1,240 per candidate, or under 3 per cent of the votes where they stood.
There was little correlation between their votes and the highest scores recorded against the divorce amendment. For example, in Mayo, where there was a high anti-divorce vote, the National Party candidate, Mr Ciaran Sherry, got just 733 first preference votes, and was eliminated on the first count. The highest vote for the Christian Solidarity Party was that of Mr Casey in Dun Laoghaire, where he got 2,002 first preferences. Dun Laoghaire recorded one of the highest votes in favour of divorce.
On the whole, the transfers do not paint a very clear picture of the reasons people voted for the NP and the CSP. In Cork North Central, for example, both parties had a candidate. When the CSP candidate, Mr Eddie Mullins, was eliminated, 131 of his 792 votes went to the National Party's Mr Con O'Leary, but the rest were distributed widely. Mr O'Leary's votes were equally widely spread around the parties when he was eliminated, with the exception of the Labour Party, but benefiting Democratic Left substantially.
The result was particularly disappointing for Mrs Bennis personally. She has a high national profile and is a very good communicator, and her family is well known in Limerick, yet her first- preference vote was just 1,533. Her party colleague, Mr John Harold - Barry got the party's highest vote, with 2,125 first preferences in South Tipperary.
But Mrs Bennis is not discouraged. "As a new party we did very well," she told The Irish Times. "We are very pleased at having stood and offered people an alternative."
She admitted she was disappointed in her own vote, and the fact that there were few transfers for her from the other candidates.
"We didn't get publicity for the past year. We were tunnelled into a single issue party. It will take a while for people to understand what we stand for," she said.
"The values we stood for were taken up by the other parties," she said. "They are all speaking about family values and payments for mothers in the home. We can take full credit for that. Without getting in we shifted the goalposts. We'll see whether they mean it or it's just lip service."
Members of the party will rest for a few days before deciding on its next step, she said. But they were not giving up. "We'll be a thorn in their sides every step of the way till the next election."
Mr Casey said he was very pleased with his own performance, and the fact almost half his votes went to Ms Mary Hanafin, daughter of the anti-divorce anil anti-abortion campaigner, Mr Des Hanafin.
He said he had warned party members that the best they could hope for was 5 per cent. They were in for the long graft, and needed next year's local elections to build a base. "You just have to do it the old-fashioned way," he said.