FROM THE ARCHIVES:Election campaigns in the 1920s were robust affairs as this report on the last Sunday of campaigning in a Limerick byelection demonstrates – JOE JOYCE
ELECTIONEERING ACTIVITY in Limerick reached fever point today, when close on 100 public meetings were held in the constituency.
President Cosgrave, members of the cabinet, and at least a dozen members of the Dáil, threw themselves into the fray with a zest which has not been shown since the last general election.
President Cosgrave and Mr Desmond Fitzgerald left Dublin at an early hour in the morning, and returned in the evening, having covered close on 300 miles and addressed two or three lively meetings in support of the Cumann na nGaedheal candidate. Before he left for Dublin the president confessed that it was the hardest “eight hours day” which he had put in for a long time.
Almost every village in the county offered evidence of the presence of party agents. Motor cars flying Tricolour flags, and covered with suitable election slogans, were to be met in all parts of the constituency. No sooner had one party left a platform than it was mounted by the supporters of the rival candidate.
By the time the president had finished a fairly large body of young men, evidently of republican sympathies, had collected on the outskirts of the crowd. The arrival of the motor cars containing the republican speakers was the signal for a prolonged outburst of cheers on their part. Mr Fitzgerald, who was addressing the meeting, found difficulty in making himself heard above the cheering.
The interruptions started again. It was only a short way then to heated altercations. A scuffle developed in the middle of the crowd, and civic guards were seen making their way to where a man, evidently one of the interrupters, was receiving rather a rough handling from some of those around him. Suddenly a young man in the crowd produced a revolver and dashed at the heckler, aiming a blow at him with the butt end of the weapon.
The crowd surged backwards, and for a few moments little attention was paid to the platform. The civic guards intervened to protect the interrupter, but were brushed aside, and a free fight ensued between the intruder and another young man in the crowd. The revolver had been put away again, but fists were used freely, the interrupter was cuffed heavily, and was pushed out of the crowd.
The republican speakers, meanwhile, had mounted a brake at another end of the square, and there was every reason to anticipate unpleasantness. The proceedings, however, in both cases now became orderly.
In all about fifty meetings were held in support of the ministerial candidate and about the same number was held by the republican party. Most of the meetings were held after last Mass in various districts in the country.
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