Campaigning starts in North Roscommon election
Roscommon, 31 January 1917 - Campaigning in the North Roscommon by-election is in full swing.
The by-election was called following the death of J.J. O’Kelly MP and voting will take place on 3 February.
It is a contest between three candidates: Thomas Devine is seeking to retain the seat for the Irish Parliamentary Party; Count George Noble Plunkett, the father of Joseph Mary Plunkett who was executed after the Easter Rising, is running as an independent; and the local newspaper owner and editor Jasper Tully of the Roscommon Herald is running as an independent. All three candidates have professed themselves to be confident of success.
Count Plunkett’s candidacy comes as news emerges that he has been requested to resign his membership of the Royal Dublin Society due to his links with the insurrection at Easter last year. The Council of the Society had recommended to the general membership that Count Plunkett be expelled and this recommendation was upheld by 236 votes to 58.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
