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Dublin-Clontarf
The general election of February 1973 was won by the National Coalition, formed by Fine Gael and Labour, bringing 16 years of Fianna Fail rule to an end. As was normal practice at the time, the constituencies were re-drawn by James Tully, the new Minister for Local Government, in order to favour the two coalition partners. One of the main ideas behind the "Tullymander", as it was known, was to have 3 seat constituencies in Dublin, where Fianna Fail was generally weaker than the combined coalition partners. One of the constituencies he came up with was Dublin-Clontarf, in the North-East of the city. Use the applet buttons to view the election count by count. Click here for the counts in text format, or if your browser doesn't have Java When the next election was held, in 1977, Fianna Fail secured 51% of the vote. The "Tullymander" backfired, giving Fianna Fail their largest majority in the history of the state. One consequence of the election was that an independent commission was formed to revise the constituencies. Dublin-Clontarf disappeared, replaced by the 4-seat Dublin North-East. However, the most recent constituency revision has changed Dublin North-East to a 3-seat constituency, bringing a Dublin-Clontarf-like constituency back to life. Two of the successful candidates in Dublin Clontarf in 1977 are still representing Dublin North-East (Michael Woods of FF and Michael Joe Cosgrave of FG, although the latter temporarily lost his seat in the swing to Labour of 1992). However, the best-known of the candidates in 1977 were George Colley of Fianna Fail and Conor Cruise-O'Brien of Labour. Of the other candidates, Sean Dublin-Bay Loftus was elected to one of the short-lived Dails of the early 1980's, while Ted Nealon went on to represent Sligo-Leitrim for many years. Eoghan Fitzsimons, the third Fianna Fail candidate, was appointed attorney-general for a brief period. In Dublin-Clontarf, Fianna Fail took 2 of the 3 seats, with Conor Cruise O'Brien, the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, losing his seat. He went on to represent Trinity College in the Seanad and was more recently associated with the UK Unionist party in Northern Ireland. George Colley was defeated by Charles Haughey for the leadership of Fianna Fail in 1979. Although there have been many changes in representation in Dublin North-East over the years, party support in 1997 was little different from twenty years earlier. The only certainty about the next election is that Fianna Fail will take at least 1 seat, with Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour all struggling for one of the last 2 seats. The following are the actual figures for the counts (the quota was 7735):-
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