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The South Longford byelection of May 1917 gave rise to one of the most memorable slogans in the history of Irish politics, “Put him in to get him out”.
The “him” was Joe McGuinness who had been sentenced to three years of hard labour for his role in the Easter Rising.
McGuinness became the first elected Sinn Féin MP. His victory at the time was regarded as at least as significant as that of Count George Plunkett in North Roscommon. Plunkett had been elected as an independent in February 1917.
Plunkett’s emphatic victory in North Roscommon was regarded as something of an aberration. He was, after all, the father of an executed leader of the Easter Rising, Joseph Mary Plunkett, and elicited a huge sympathy vote.
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Due to a combination of disorganisation, inertia and the foul weather, the Irish Party barely contested North Roscommon. It would not make the same mistake again and yet it still contrived to lose, albeit by a narrow margin.
The victory presaged the electoral wipeout of the Irish Party in December 1918 and convinced a tired and dispirited John Redmond that his party was facing oblivion.
The election was held after the death of the sitting MP John Phillips, who had first been elected in 1907 and was unopposed in two successive elections.
He died on April 2nd, 1917, precipitating the first election in the constituency since 1910. Joe McGuinness was chosen because of his connections with Longford town. His brother Frank McGuinness had been a prominent Irish Party supporter in Longford, but switched to Sinn Féin because of the failure to implement the Home Rule settlement.
Immediately after the anticipated byelection was called, the Sinn Féin leadership agreed to contest the election and proposed McGuinness as its preferred candidate.
To a man, with the notable exception of Thomas Ashe, the prisoners in Lewes prison in England rejected the decision. Éamon de Valera set out their objections in a long memorandum. The principal reason was the belief that if McGuinness lost, “it would mean the ruin of the hopes – not to say the ideals – which prompted our comrades to give the word last Easter. His defeat would mean our defeat.” He compared the election to a “throw of the dice”.
His reservations would be well-founded given what transpired and the result was in doubt until the very end.
The prisoners were overruled by Michael Collins, who appears to have been subjected to torrents of abuse from the remaining prisoners. “One gets so used to being called bad names and being misunderstood”.
Whatever the machinations behind the scenes, the Sinn Féin party in public presented a united front. The enthusiastic manner in which supporters from across the country descended on the constituency was much noted in the local and national press. Stories abounded of farmers being roused from their beds by canvassers after midnight and of fathers being pestered by their sons to vote for McGuinness. Hundreds of canvassers made the journey on bicycle from Dublin.
The Irish Party’s campaign was hampered by a farcical situation in which three candidates were proposed. Redmond intervened and chose Joseph McKenna, the one with the most solid nationalist credentials.
With the exception of Redmond, who was bedridden, the Irish Party sent every prominent MP to the constituency in support of McKenna. The party had legitimate hopes the election would not be a repeat of North Roscommon and confidently expected victory.
Redmond’s deputy John Dillon put the choice to the South Longford electorate in a speech before the election. The Irish Party “hold the pass and carry on the tradition which was handed down to us by Davitt and Parnell . . . We fight under the old flag under which our fathers fought”.
The Irish Party claimed the support of the local bishop and most of the clergy, but it was the last minute intervention of the Archbishop of Dublin William Walsh who had the decisive bearing on the final result.
The issues of conscription and partition dominated the campaign. On the day before the election, 21 Catholic and Protestant bishops signed a petition opposing partition. Archbishop Walsh went further. Without mentioning it by name, he let it be known the Irish Party had “practically sold” the country to partition.
Immediately, Sinn Féin printed thousands of leaflets with his message and distributed them to voters.
Initially, the Irish Party’s McKenna was deemed to have won the election but a bundle of uncounted votes was found. When the result was declared, McGuinness had garnered 1,498 votes to McKenna’s 1,461, a margin of 37.
A nick was as good as a cut. Dillon was sure the defeat was terminal for the party. He wrote to Redmond: “We have the bishop, the great majority of the priests and the mob and four-fifths of the traders of Longford. And in the face of that we are beaten, I do not see how you can hold the party in existence.”
McGuinness found out about his election after a prisoner swiped a copy of a newspaper from a jailer. He was carried shoulder high by his fellow prisoners. The memorable election slogan proved to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. He and the other prisoners were released a month later.
McGuinness went on to be re-elected in December 1918 and was also in the 1921 general election.
He went on to support the Treaty, the same one which confirmed the partition of Ireland, but died a year later of natural causes just a month before the Civil War broke out.