RECENTLY, there has been much interest in the role of independent TDs in support of a minority government. This subject, of course, is not a new one. Another such occasion occurred after the general election of 1951.
Ironically, this Fianna Fáil minority government, led by Éamon de Valera, was heavily dependent on the vote of a “Northern Protestant conservative”, as the press called him.
This individual was the remarkable William Alexander Watson Sheldon, known to his friends as “Willie”.
Born in Derry in 1907, he attended Foyle College. He then went to Queen’s University in Belfast where he became president of the student representative council. In the 1930s he moved to Raphoe in Co Donegal to take over his late uncle’s farm.
In 1943 he was elected as a TD for Donegal East as an independent farmers’ candidate, but in 1948 he was returned as an independent Protestant candidate. In the early years he supported Fine Gael as a party with moderate views on relations with Northern Ireland and Britain.
Following the 1948 general election, however, Fine Gael entered into an inter-party government under John A Costello. In September 1949, Costello announced the intention of the government to withdraw from the Commonwealth and to declare a republic.
Eventually, most opponents accept the change. This was not the case with Willie Sheldon.
In a public letter to Costello on December 2nd, 1950, he declared that he had decided to disassociate himself from general support for the government. His reasons included the decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth, compulsory Irish and the government’s anti-partition policy.
At this point, Sheldon’s position can have caused little concern to the government.
Everything changed, however, with the 1951 general election. Ironically, Fine Gael won an extra nine seats and Labour another two seats while the Fianna Fáil seats went up by only one. But, other partners in the inter-party government saw a fall in numbers, and the number of independents rose to 14.
At the crucial vote in the Dáil on June 13th, 1951 to appoint a new taoiseach, Costello was defeated by 74 votes to 72. In a follow-up vote, three of the independents, including Sheldon, who had supported Costello, abstained and de Valera was elected by 74 votes to 69.
From then on, how Sheldon voted in the Dáil was of great importance to de Valera. On most votes he abstained but on a number of important occasions, when this minority Fianna Fáil government faced possible defeat, he gave it his support.
As a result of his new-found influence, Sheldon assumed a much higher Dáil presence. On July 11th, 1951, he was elected chairman of the influential Public Affairs Committee, and later he was nominated as one of the vice-chairmen of Dáil Éireann.
On July 4th, 1953, after one occasion when his vote helped to save the government, The Irish Times ran an article on Sheldon. It pointed out how he had never forgiven Costello for the creation of a republic. It also described Sheldon as one of the most popular deputies in Dáil Éireann, with “that rare quality, a sense of humour”.
The article went on: “He has the Gary Cooper technique – the charming smile beneath which the countryman cloaks his innate cuteness”. It described him as no orator but “the perfect committee man” and stated that “his one hobby is trout fishing, and here, perhaps, the general line emerges – patience, skill and tenacity”.
It is probable, however, that Sheldon played another important part in politics, besides his committee role. In the late 1940s, Irish political leaders had become very worked up about the North.
In September 1948 Costello stated that he considered himself prime minister of all Ireland, “No matter what the Irish in the North say”. At an anti-partition rally in Scotland in October 1948, de Valera warned unionists that they would have to choose to be Irish or British, and, if their choice was not the former, he urged: “In God’s name will you go to the country that your affections lie in”.
When de Valera returned to power in 1951, however, as John Bowman has noted, there was a toning down of government anti-partition rhetoric and actions. This was probably due to Sheldon’s influence. Just as Costello was influenced to go for a republic, because he was dependent on the support of Seán Mac Bride, so de Valera would have been conscious of the need not to offend Sheldon over Northern Ireland.
During the 1950s, Sheldon’s vote in East Donegal rose. In 1961, however, he did not stand, because he could no longer win a seat, due to the redrawing of constituency boundaries by Willie’s new found “friends” in Fianna Fáil.
A columnist in The Irish Timeson October 14th, 1961 remarked how the recent election "provided first-class propagandist ammunition for any opportunistic Unionist in Stormont who has the wit to exploit the fact that the gerrymandering of East Donegal resulted in the displacement of William Sheldon".
At this stage it looked as if Willie Sheldon’s political career was over. Not long after the general election, however, the names of the new members of the Senate were announced. There, among the nominees of the taoiseach Seán Lemass, was William Sheldon (Independent).
Fianna Fáil had knifed their old ally in the back with the gerrymandering of the Donegal constituencies. But, after all, they owed him for his help at an earlier stage. Besides, as the columnist in The Irish Timeson October 14th, 1961 noted; "he had the respect of all the parties".
Willie Sheldon was nominated as a senator by the taoiseach again in 1965 and in 1969. He died on November 1st, 1999.