PREPARATIONS FOR GENERAL ELECTION
With the dissolution of the Third Dáil on 9 August, preparations gained momentum for the first general election to be held since the establishment of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922.

Under the Electoral Act 1923, some modifications were made to the electoral law. Franchise rights were given to women between 21 and 30, bringing about universal adult suffrage, and plural voting was abolished: university graduates were not entitled to remain on the register of both a university and a territorial constituency.

The deposit was reduced from £150 to £100. The number of Dáil seats was increased from 128 to 153, and the constituency boundaries redrawn. There were now 28 territorial constituencies, along with the two university constituencies.

[Extract: Irish Elections 1922-44:Results and Analysis, Edited by Michael Gallagher, PSAI Press 1993 [revised 2023], p23]

The candidates for Cork City were as follows:
Cumman Na nGaedheal*: James J. Walsh, Postmaster General (outgoing) and Professor O’Rahilly.
Labour: Robert Day (outgoing) and Professor Alfred O’Rahilly
Sinn Féin: Mary MacSwiney (outgoing), Alderman Fred Murray and Dr. Con Lucey
Progressive Association: Alderman Richard Beamish and A. O’Shaughnessy
Farmers’ Union: Timothy Corcoran
Independents: Sir John Harley Scott and Captain Jerb Collins.

The election would take place on Monday 27 August with the nearest polling station to Cork School of Art was a few steps across the road to Central Hall, Academy Street [currently Nando’s restaurant].

[source: Cork Examiner, 19 July 1923, p4]

*The successor to the Pro-Treaty wing of Sinn Féin

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube