1932 Election poster

Irish election posters were more colourful in the last century as this one from County Kildare Archives & Local Studies collection depicts. In the 1932 General Election Fianna Fail were in a clear majority with 71 seats. Cumann na Gaedheal (later Fine Gael) won 55 seats, Labour Party 7, Farmers Party 3 and Independents 11. As they were short five seats Fianna Fail formed a government with the support of the Labour Party, replacing Cummann na nGaedheal, which had been the governing party since 1922.

The two Fianna Fail candidates mentioned on the election poster were Donal Buckley (Domhnall Ua Buachalla) and Tom Harris, both 1916 veterans. Harris topped the poll with 26.9 per cent of the vote and was elected, but Buckley, who had been elected for Sinn Fein in 1918, lost his seat. Kildare had been a two-seater but was now a three-seater with Sidney Minch, Cumann nGaedheal, and Willie Norton, Labour, also elected.