Dail Deputies: "The 1969 Generation". BRIAN FARRELL As the Eighteenth Dail's life drew to a close, a major change in Irish political life was anticipated. The expectations were not confined to the national mass media, although the subsequent results tempted some politicians to suggest that the closed world of television, radio and national press had misread the mood of the nation. At the local level too, throughout the campaign, newspapers spoke of the "Strong Desire for Change"1 and saw the contest as the promise of "one of the great watersheds in Irish political history".2 The same term was used in a fairly typical comment on the decline of governmental vigour and support in the Western People's editorial at the end of the campaign: We believe the people desire a change, as much for the sake of democracy as for the humanisation of a once great party which can find itself again and its roots afresh in the cause of the little man. This is why quality control at the ballot box is the greatest need of an election that is a watershed in Irish politics.3 The sense of change was commonly related to the impact and side effects of the vigorous campaign by the Labour Party with its assertive slogan "the seventies will be socialist". The Kerry man commented editorially: It is a new growth for the Irish political scene where a pragmatic centrism has always ruled and where ideological straightjackets of one kind or another have never quite fitted. With this election Labour faces the public for the first time in doctrinaire dress.4 However, perhaps the most frequent comments and most persistent news coverage related to the apparent generational change in Irish politics marked both by the disappearance of so many senior sitting members and by the appearance of new "prestige" candidates in all parties. The considerable increase of competition both within and between parties was marked from the beginning. In early April The Irish Times political columnist "Backbencher" devoted a full article to 1. Editorial in Sligo Champion, 30th May. 2. Editorial in Kilkenny People, 13th June. 3. Western People, 14th June. 4. The Kerryman, 31st May. "Fine Gael's Carpetbaggers".5 Labour, which had already announced the adherence of Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien with a large public meeting the previous December6 followed up by nominating a Trinity College Dublin don and well-known television personality, Justin Keating, in North County Dublin during April.7 During April and May a constant series of stories brought news that sitting deputies would not be offering themselves for re-election; at the same time these withdrawals were linked with news of the new men in all parties (Rickard Deasy and David Thornley in Labour, John Bruton, Michael Sweetman and John Kelly in Fine Gael, Dermot Ryan, Ruairi Brugha in Fianna Fail).8 Many welcomed this injection of new blood. An editorial in the Westmeath Examiner echoed a general view: It is time to have a more mature.approach to the actual work of our Deputies. The traditional pattern of work that is expected from them by the public is outmoded. Let's face it, the task of the Deputy is a never-ending round of letter-writing about mundane subjects, introducing deputations and looking after so many causes that are lost beforehand. Deputies are often expected to have more influence as regards hopeless causes than many of the saints and the old tradition of knowing the right people and having a bit of political pull is still a great power in modern Ireland.9 Commenting on "The Changing Political Scene" the Limerick Leader editorialised: The electorate is now much more mature and it will certainly be a very stupid party that will expect to have second-rate or self-seeking candidates elected. People are becoming more conscious of the qualities they require in their representatives, too.10 And the Kilkenny People argued: A most important factor in deciding the outcome of this election in marginal constituencies will be the quality of the candidate nominated. An outstanding national personality or a respected local figure could substantially change the normal voting pattern and such a candidate could well succeed in winning an extra seat for his party.11 5. The Irish Times, 4~5th April. 6. For a full report see The Irish Times, 20th December, 1968. 7. The Irish Times, 12th April. 8. Stories included retirements of sitting deputies, John A. Costello, Lionel Booth, Patrick Byrne (10th, 26th April); P. A. Callcary, Eugene Gilbride, Sean MacEntee, Patrick Crotty (9th, 13th, 28th, 30th May) and Martin Corry (5th June) and e^g. an The Irish Times series on "The Contenders". 9. Westmeath Examiner, 17th May. 10. Limerick Leader, 31st May. 11. Kilkenny People, 30th May. DAIL vemms; "am 1969 e&mxxion" 311 As nominations closed, Maurice Mickey summedmp the -prospects for Ae "Nineteenth DM in the Evening Herald under a headline "'Half Present DM .likely to Vanish": At the latest count, 21 outgoing Deputies are not standing again and a "few more many announce their retirement before Tuesday. The "drop-out" from the present Dail, from whatever cause, may mean that half of its present membership will vanish in this election. Some deputies have stood down voluntarily, others have been asked to retire and one or two actually "forced out". A sizable number of-the outgoing-members will be defeated. The election will be between the Parties but there will be an election within an election to decide how many of the older generation and how many of the younger generation survive. The betting is on the young men. The new Dail should be full of young members on all sides of die House and whatever Party takes over government it should really be possible to make the claim that the new Cabinet will be "the youngest in Europe".12 The same theme of generational change and increased competition was a main news lead in the Irish Press which reported: It looks as if the new Dail will he without at least 26 of its outgoing deputies. Practically all of the gtoup have retired on the grounds of age, but two, Mr. Patrick Clohessy and Mr. Patrick Norton, of Fianna Fail, failed to .get the nomination at their convention. Fianna Fail has the biggest number of retirements. Fifteen of the party's outgoing members will not be back. Going also are six from Fine Gael, four from Labour and one Independent.13 There were, then, three related expectations regarding the outcome of the General Election in terms of Dail personnel: (i) that there would be a greater Labour presence; (ii) that there would be a marked generational change in the House; (hi) that there would be a different quality of representation. The immediate electoral results showed the first to be wrong; but superficial observation of some of the younger, and more vigorous new deputies might suggest that die other two expectations were realised. This paper reports on a survey-census giving relevant comparative data on these points. It is based on a mail questionnaire by RTE's major current affairs programme, 7 Days, details of which are given in the Appendix. Both in gathering the information and structuring the following analysis, an attempt has been made to establish some degree of useful comparability by adopting categories already established in the 12. Evening Herald, 29th May. 13. Irish Press, 30th May. earlier, work on-Dail personnel by McCracken and Whyte,14 i.e., age, birth and residence, education, occupation and routes of entry. Unless indicated to the contrary, all data for 1969 are given for the full Dail of 144 Deputies as elected, or, in the case of political parties, for the full 75 Fianna Fail, 50 Fine Gael, and 18 Labour Deputies. = • > • AGE The trend towards a lowering of the age-range of the Dail, already evident between 1961 and 1965, continued in 1969, as can be seen from Table 1: TABLE I : Percentage of Deputies aged 45 and over, 1961-1969 1961 1965 1969 61 60 52-5 However the change in the new House was attributable to a flattening-out of the middle-aged groupings rather than to any major increase in the number of very young deputies. The data indicate that the relative durability of elected representatives which has been such a constant feature of the Irish political system continues to determine the age-structure of the Dail. Despite the appearance of 43 new deputies15 in the Dail, the voters in their twenties continued to be sub­ stantially under-represented. Comparative data, showing the relatively even aging-and-replacement pattern of deputies, are given in Table 2. TABLE 2: Percentage of Deputies by Age-Group in 5 Data, 1919-1969 Age-Group 1919 1932 1944 1965 1969 20-29 21 1 2 6 6 30-39 ^ ,37 27 12 20 25 40-49 ' 25 39 31 31 27 50-59 _ • 13 26 37 24 27 60-69 3 5 17 14 12 '70-79 — 2 1 5 ' 3 An analysis of the age-structure of the Nineteenth Dail by political parties (Table 3) shows no significant difference between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, but generational change is evident in the case of Labour. Expressed in percentage 14. J. L. McCracken, Representative Government in Ireland, Oxford 1958, chapter VII, "The Composition of the Dail"; John Whyte, Dail Deputies, Tuairim pamphlet No. 15, Dublin 1966. In subsequent tables comparative data are derived from these sources. 15. Some of these had been members of the Diil prior to the 1965 General Election.