1925 Seanad election

← 1922 17 September 1925 1928 →
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19 of 60 seats inSeanad Éireann 31 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	23.4%
First party Second party Third party   Leader W. T. Cosgrave Thomas Johnson Denis Gorey Party Cumann na nGaedheal Labour Farmers' Party Leader since April 1923 1922 1922 Last election 14 seats, 23.3% 6 seats, 10% 1 seats, 1.7% Seats before 14 6 1 Seats won 15 5 3 Seat change 1 1 2 Popular vote 126,218 46,776 42,785 Percentage 41.3% 15.3% 8.9%

An election for 19 of the 60 seats inSeanad Éireann, the senate of theIrish Free State, was held on 17 September 1925. The election was bysingle transferable vote, with the entire country being used as a 19-seat constituency.^[1]

The election saw eightCumann na nGaedheal members elected (an advance of one compared to its pre-election representation), as well as threeLabour Party (a drop of one seat), threeFarmers' Party (an advance of two seats), and five others (a drop from seven previous to the election).

There were 76 candidates on the ballot paper. Votersranked candidates by preference at least a few, but did not have to rank all of them.^[2] Although bearing multiple marked preferences, each vote was to be used to elect just one member in the end. Of the two mainpolitical parties, the larger (Cumann na nGaedheal) did not formally endorse any candidates, while the other (Sinn Féin, whose TDs wereabstentionist)boycotted the election. Voter turnout was low, and the outcome was considered unsatisfactory by some.

In subsequent elections, senators were elected by theOireachtas rather than by the electorate.

The 1922Constitution of the Irish Free State provided for a Seanad of 60 members directly elected. Members would serve 12-year terms, with one-quarter of the house elected every three years. The members would be elected under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote in a single, nationwide, 15-seat contest. As well as this cohort up for election in 1925, four additional Senators were required to vacate their seats: these had been temporarily co-opted to fill casual vacancies that had arisen in previous years.

The 60 Senators were divided into four cohorts of 15, and an at-large election held every three years for one of the cohorts.^[3][4]

As part of the initial transitional measures, 30 of the 60 Senators elected in 1922 were selected by the Dáil, of whom the last 15 to secure election formed the cohort whose term would end in 1925, the end of the first triennial period established by the 1922 constitution.^[3][5][6]

There were three methods of being included on the ballot. Outgoing Senators could nominate themselves for re-election,^[7] and all 19 did so.^[8] The Seanad could nominate a number of candidates equal to the number of vacancies (19), and theDáil could nominate twice the number of vacancies (38).^[7] The Dáil and Seanad nominations were bysingle transferable vote andsecret ballot.^[9] The minimum age for Senators was 35 years.^[10]

The Seanad resolved on 30 April to form a committee to decide procedure for its nominations; the committee drafted a resolution in June,^[11] which was amended and passed by the Seanad on 19 June.^[12] 29 applicants contested the Seanad nominations on 1 July.^[13][14][15] Apart from two Labour Party members, the candidates were Independents.^[16] 47 of the 60 Senators voted, including 18 of the 19 who were themselves standing for re-election.^[15] Donal O'Sullivan, clerk of the Seanad throughout its existence, suggests that these 18 had an incentive to vote for less popular candidates since the nominees would be rivals in the ensuing election.^[17] O'Sullivan describes the results as "a very great disappointment ... the list [of successful nominees] could not compare with the list of the ten rejected."^[15]Oliver St. John Gogarty made a similar remark in the Seanad itself after the results were announced.^[18]

The rejected ten were: David Barry, general manager of theBritish and Irish Steam Packet Company; Sir Laurence Grattan Esmonde, brother of SenatorThomas Grattan Esmonde, Bart;Lady Gregory;John Horgan;Hugh Law; John McCann, astockbroker;The McGillicuddy of the Reeks; William Lombard Murphy, son ofWilliam Martin Murphy and proprietor of theIrish Independent; Sir John Harley Scott, aUnionist formerMayor of Cork; and J.J. Stafford, aCounty Wexford businessman.^[17][19]

Cumann na nGaedheal, the party which backedthe incumbent government, decided not to formally support any candidates as a result of internal divisions. There was tension between ministers,backbenchers, and grassroots members, and between factions ofKevin O'Higgins andW. T. Cosgrave. The 1924Army Mutiny had shaken the year-old party, and the appointment of public servants to lead the new state's institutions created resentment among those passed over. Theparliamentary party held two selection conventions, on 2 and 6 July 1925, and when the leadership's candidates did badly afree vote was offered in the Dáil with all candidates nominally endorsed by the party.^[20]

The Dáil nominations were decided on 8 July.^[17][21] 57 candidates contested; 101TDs voted, with one ballot deemedineligible.^[17][22] 52 TDs did not vote, including all 44abstentionistSinn Féin TDs, who were ineligible to vote as they had not taken theOath of Allegiance.^[23] TDs supported candidates on party lines.^[16] Of the 38 successful nominees, O'Sullivan classifies 21 as supporters of theCumann na nGaedheal Government, 9 asIndependent, 5 as in theFarmers' Party, and 3 as in theLabour Party.^[17] Four of the ten candidates rejected by the Seanad were also among the Dáil candidates, with John J. Horgan securing a nomination at the second attempt.^[8]

The usual Irish local, personalcanvassing strategy was impractical across a nationwide constituency, leading to a relatively quiet campaign.^[24] While the Farmers' Party and Labour produced newspaper advertisements for their respective slates of candidates, Cumann na nGaedheal did not at a national level formally endorse candidates, even those its TDs had nominated.^[25] It presented the election asnonpartisan.^[26] It published a booklet,Who's who in the 1925 Senate Election, and did not oppose candidates "put forward by any of the elements that accept the State and Constitution", i.e. other than republicans opposed to theAnglo-Irish Treaty.^[20]

Numerous interest groups produced lists of approved candidates, includingdoctors,publicans, motorists,ex-servicemen's associations, and the livestock trade.^[27] Candidates endorsed bytemperance groups fared badly.^[26] TheCatholic Truth Society circulated, to little effect,^[28] a list of outgoing Senators it condemned for not having opposed a controversial motion pertaining todivorce.^[29][30]

Sinn Féin, under the leadership ofÉamon de Valera, called for aboycott of the election.^[31] Sinn Féin had not boycotted the1923 Dáil election, but rather contested it on anabstentionist platform. De Valera would later lead hisFianna Fáil party, founded in 1926, into theOireachtas after theJune 1927 Dáil election.

The election was bysingle transferable vote, with the entireIrish Free State forming a single, 19-seat constituency. All citizens over 30 had a vote. Since thevoting age for Dáil and local elections was 21, a separateelectoral roll was maintained for the Seanad election.^[6]

The 76 candidates were arranged alphabetically on a ballot paper 22 inches (56 cm) long and 16 inches (41 cm) wide.^[26] The Electoral (Seanad Elections) Act, 1925 was passed to allow the ballot to be presented as four parallel columns of 19 names rather than a single long column of all 76.^[32][33]

The lowvoter turnout was blamed on the Sinn Féin boycott,^[31][34] wet weather across the country,^[26][31] and the shorter than usual hours of polling.^[26] Turnout varied widely, from 8.2% inMayo North to 43% inMonaghan.^[26] Another factor was the large, intimidating ballot paper;^[26] O'Sullivan described it as "a fiasco",^[31] saying it was unreasonable to expect voters to "make an intelligent choice of nineteen persons from a list containing seventy-six names, most of which they had never seen or heard of before."^[35] (Of course each voter did not need to mark 19 choices.)

The ballots were initially collected to one centre within eachDáil constituency to count and sort the first-preference votes.^[6] This took almost a week.^[26] On 25 September, the ballots were sent toDublin, the totals checked centrally, and redistribution of transfers begun.^[6][26] Initially there were 10 count officials, rising to 40 by the end.^[37] On 5 October, the first candidate was returned, on the 45th count.^[26] Counting continued until 19 October.^[26]

Harold Gosnell said that there was more news coverage of the count than of the preceding campaign: "the counting of the ballots under [STV] applied on a national scale attracts wide attention, and the results are sure to reflect the opinions (or lack of them) manifested by the electors".^[38]

Although the election was national, many of the candidates relied on local support: 23 gained more than half their first preferences from their own constituency.^[39] Thus, STV proved itself both able to elect those with local support and those with thinly-spread dispersed support.

About 12% (37,714) of valid ballots were exhausted, found to be non-transferable when eligible for transfer.^[37] (One or more of the preferences marked on the ballots may have been elected, just without the help of that particular vote). Less than 3 percent of the ballots cast were spoiled..[1]

About 260,000 of the 315,000 votes cast were used in the end to elect the 19 winners, an 85 percent rate of effective votes.

Candidates of the two parties contesting the election,the Labour Party andthe Farmers' Party, did relatively well.^[40] Some interest groups also did well –vintners, ex-servicemen.^[41][42] Others did not — doctors,^[41] academics, women, and especiallyIrish language revivalists: all four candidates supported by theGaelic League lost, including outgoing Senator and future presidentDouglas Hyde.^[42][43] The Irish Times (Sept. 24, 1925) reported that licensed liquor dealers, ex-soldiers, farmers, doctors and businessmen received their due in the election.[2]

Ex-Unionist candidates did not fare well, even though the original design of the Seanad was intended in part to provide enhanced representation for the Unionist minority.^[44]

The quota (the amount guaranteed to secure election) was 15,286.

Thirteen were elected at the end, when the field of candidates was thinned to the number of remaining open seats in the 65th count, some of them were elected with less than the quota.

The shortcomings of the 1925 election created a consensus that a single national constituency was unworkable.^[50] Political scientistHarold Foote Gosnell wrote of the election, "the ballot is a confusing one and the size of the constituency makes electioneering difficult."^[51]

In 1928, in the lead-up to the next triennial Seanad election, the Oireachtas formed ajoint committee to change the selection procedures.^[50][52] While some members favoured retaining some form of voting by the general electorate,Fianna Fáil in particular wanted to ensure the Seanad was subordinate to the Dáil by restricting the franchise to Oireachtas members.^[53] This was effected by a constitutional amendment enacted on 23 July and an electoral act on 25 October.^[32][54][55] Thus, the 1925 election remains the only Seanadpopular election.^[56]

• 1925 Seanad

• Coakley, John (September 2005). "Ireland's Unique Electoral Experiment: The Senate Election of 1925".Irish Political Studies.20 (3):231–269.doi:10.1080/07907180500359327.
• Gosnell, Harold F. (1926). "An Irish Free State Senate Election".The American Political Science Review.20 (1):117–120.doi:10.2307/1945103.ISSN 0003-0554.JSTOR 1945103.
• O'Sullivan, Donal (1940).The Irish Free State and its Senate: A Study in Contemporary Politics. London:Faber & Faber. Retrieved15 March 2018.
• "Constitution of The Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann)".Irish Statute Book. Office of theAttorney General of Ireland. 1922. Retrieved30 October 2008.

• Whyte, Nicholas (17 February 2002) [23 April 2000].""An exceedingly severe test": The Irish Senate elections of 1925".CAIN. Retrieved23 October 2008.

• 1925 elections in the Irish Free State
• 1925 in Irish politics
• Seanad Éireann elections
• September 1925 in Europe

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