Sinn Féin predicting electoral landslide
Dublin, 18 December 1918 - The votes in the biggest ever demonstration of Irish democracy have been cast.
The counting of those votes will not take place until 28 December but there is little doubt that it will herald the replacement of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) as the dominant voice in Irish nationalist politics.
A significant number of seats were uncontested but even where they face a challenge from the IPP, Sinn Féin is confident of success. In East Mayo, where their imprisoned leader Éamon de Valera is challenging IPP leader John Dillon, Sinn Féin headquarters is forecasting victory by a substantial majority.
Success, too, is being predicted in South Monaghan and in North Monaghan, albeit by a smaller margin. Derry City is expected to be good to the party, but not West Belfast where they are contesting for the first ever time. Mr de Valera is also running here – he is running in three constituencies altogether – in an attempt to beat the veteran incumbent, Joseph Devlin.
The word from Sinn Féin election directors in the provinces is equally positive. They are predicting a victory for Dr White over Capt. Redmond in Waterford, as well as a ‘clean sweep’ for the party in West Mayo and large majorities in their favour in Longford, West Wicklow and North Galway.
Overall, the Sinn Féiners are predicting that they will win 75 seats, while the most confident estimate from their nationalist rivals is 12 seats – which will be made up of victories in eight contested constituencies plus the four allocated to them under the arrangement brokered by Cardinal Logue.
The IPP are only hopeful of winning one Dublin seat, that of St Michan’s where their candidate is John D. Nugent. Even here, however, their optimism is countered by that of Sinn Féin which is predicting a comfortable victory for Mr Nugent’s sole opponent, Michael Staines.
The Sinn Féin estimates accord Mr Staines a healthy 4,000 plus majority.
[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.]
