Labour learns strategy lesson to take most seats in party’s history

DESPITE winning an almost identical first preference share to the Spring Tide of 1992, the Labour Party has made a far more forceful breakthrough this time.

Eamon Gilmore’s team received 19.4% of the vote on Friday, 0.09% above Dick Spring’s tally, but Labour will enter the 31st Dáil with at least three more seats than its high water mark of 19 years ago. It will be the second-biggest party in the Dáil, with a guaranteed 36 seats and two more the subject of recounts.

It has found new figures to replace old forces and is now the largest political organisation in Dublin.

This built on the prominent status it developed in the capital’s four local authorities during successive local elections — it holds 45 out of 130 combined council seats.

Sixteen deputies in the capital bested its return from 1992, reflecting a more disciplined approach that brought home a pair of TDs in six constituencies: Dublin South East, North West, South West, Mid-West, North East and South Central.

Crucially, it did this despite a surge in support for other left-wing parties Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and the Socialist Party.

Consistent poll-topping performances saw it crack Dublin North Central with the arrival of Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, and it reclaimed a seat in Dublin South and Dublin North.

“It is a really great result,” said a beaming Gilmore when he reflected on bringing in the largest number of TDs in the party’s history.

He said the tally was a credit to the most active ever mobilisation of the party’s grassroots councillors and activists. However, the Dublin result suggested Labour had learned from its strategic mistakes in elections past and had the confidence to run two candidates with realistic vote management deals.

Ruairi Quinn ceded a large portion of his share to Kevin Humphreys and Roisin Shortall did likewise for the young candidate John Lyons.

Labour also found new footholds with forward planning and clever use of resources.

It used the staging posts of the Seanad and European Parliament to effectively promote Dáil candidates.

Four of its six outgoing senators were elected to the Dáil and two others were within a shout of getting elected.

Senator Michael McCarthy finally made the breakthrough in the three-seat Cork South West following almost a decade in the Seanad.

He said there was always a Labour seat in the old five-seat constituency but it took 10 years of preparing to reclaim the position last won by the party in 1981.

Alan Kelly’s return from Brussels gave him the stature and record to elbow out Fianna Fáil’s Máire Hoctor in Tipperary North.

In addition, where it did not have public representative posts with which to catapult candidates, it found other means to allow them to immerse themselves in politics.

Ged Nash in Louth was projected from a platform as assistant to the party’s Ireland East MEP Nessa Childers.

The former secretary of Labour Youth looked safe from the first count and even carried an unsuccessful running-mate, despite his constituency effectively operating as a four-seater with Ceann Comhairle Seamus Kirk automatically returned.

Other candidates had to build winning campaigns from county and town council seats.

Michael McNamara (Clare), Ann Phelan (Kilkenny), Conal Keaveney (Galway) and Ciara Conway (Dungarvan) delivered new Labour seats.

There were disappointments. In Limerick James Heffernan ran a strong campaign and was thought to be one of Labour’s brightest hopes.

John Kelly, Roscommon south Leitrim, failed to capitalise on his strong showing as an independent in 2007. But the party successfully bridged the gap between personality -driven legacies and new candidates.

Michael D Higgins handed his Galway West seat to Derek Nolan. Arthur Spring won back the Kerry North spot which used to belong to his uncle Dick.