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147 seats inDáil Éireann[a] 74 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 71.3% 5.2pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Election results and first-preference votes in each constituency Number of seats gained by each party in each constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1957 Irish general election to the16th Dáil was held on Tuesday, 5 March, following a dissolution of the15th Dáil on 12 February byPresidentSeán T. O'Kelly on the request ofTaoiseachJohn A. Costello on 4 February. It was the longest election campaign in the history of the state, spanning 30 days. The general election took place in 40Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 147 seats inDáil Éireann, the house of representatives of theOireachtas.
The 16th Dáil met atLeinster House on 20 March to nominate the Taoiseach for appointment by the president and to approve the appointment of a newgovernment of Ireland. Costello lost office, andÉamon de Valera was appointed Taoiseach, forming the8th government of Ireland, a single-party majorityFianna Fáil government.
The 1957 general election was precipitated by the crisis in the trade balance and the government's reaction to it. As a result of this crisis,Fianna Fáil tabled amotion of no confidence in the inter-party government ofFine Gael,Labour andClann na Talmhan. The Dáil had been scheduled to resume on 13 February. Rather than face defeat in the vote, on 4 February theTaoiseachJohn A. Costello, sought a dissolution of the Dáil for 12 February.[3] The campaign was fought largely over economic issues and the situation in Northern Ireland. In the North, the IRA had launchedOperation Harvest which drew much popular support in the south.Sinn Féin had been re-built and re-organized as a party byPaddy McLogan and was fielding abstentionist candidates.
Fianna Fáil had produced a major policy document in January, criticising many of its own policies in regard to the economy. While they did not know an election was imminent this became the backbone of their manifesto. The importance of free trade was played up by Fianna Fáil in a clear rejection of the protectionist policies they had advocated in the past. The architect of many of these new policies was the spokesperson forIndustry and Commerce and the heir-apparent of the party,Seán Lemass. At 75 years of ageÉamon de Valera was fighting his last general election as leader of the party. In spite of his age, he carried out a vigorous campaign, often being accompanied by brass bands and torch-lit processions. The Fianna Fáil message was simple: coalition governments were unstable.
The other parties, most of them having enjoyed a stint in government over the previous three years, fought the election on their record in office, Fine Gael in particular. Clann na Talmhan failed to broaden their appeal and remained the voice of the farmers.Clann na Poblachta underSeán MacBride had agreed not to stand in constituencies whereSinn Féin were fielding candidates and lost two of its three seats. Sinn Féin, fighting one of its first post-war elections on anabstentionist ticket won 4 seats.
| Election to the 16th Dáil – 5 March 1957[4][5][6][7] | ||||||||
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| Party | Leader | Seats | ± | % of seats | First pref. votes | % FPv | ±% | |
| Fianna Fáil | Éamon de Valera | 78 | +13 | 53.1 | 592,994 | 48.3 | +4.9 | |
| Fine Gael | Richard Mulcahy | 40 | –10 | 27.2 | 326,699 | 26.6 | –5.4 | |
| Labour | William Norton | 12[a] | –7 | 8.2 | 111,747 | 9.1 | –3.0 | |
| Sinn Féin | Paddy McLogan | 4 | +4 | 2.7 | 65,640 | 5.3 | +5.2 | |
| Clann na Talmhan | Joseph Blowick | 3 | –2 | 2.0 | 28,905 | 2.4 | –1.4 | |
| Clann na Poblachta | Seán MacBride[b] | 1 | –2 | 0.7 | 20,632 | 1.7 | –1.4 | |
| Irish Housewives' Association | 0 | New | 0 | 4,797 | 0.4 | – | ||
| Ratepayers' Association | 0 | New | 0 | 3,113 | 0.3 | – | ||
| Independent | N/A | 9 | +4 | 6.1 | 72,492 | 5.9 | +0.6 | |
| Spoilt votes | 11,540 | — | — | |||||
| Total | 147 | 0 | 100 | 1,238,559 | 100 | — | ||
| Electorate/Turnout | 1,738,278 | 71.3 | — | |||||
| Fianna Fáil | 48.34% | |||
| Fine Gael | 26.63% | |||
| Labour | 9.11% | |||
| Sinn Féin | 5.35% | |||
| Clann na Talmhan | 2.36% | |||
| Clann na Poblachta | 1.68% | |||
| Others | 0.64% | |||
| Independent | 5.91% | |||
| Fianna Fáil | 53.06% | |||
| Fine Gael | 27.21% | |||
| Labour | 8.16% | |||
| Sinn Féin | 2.72% | |||
| Clann na Talmhan | 2.04% | |||
| Clann na Poblachta | 0.68% | |||
| Independent | 6.12% | |||
A Fianna Fáil majority government was formed. Éamon de Valera became Taoiseach for the last time.
The Dáil election was followed by an election to the9th Seanad.
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