sition of his majority by dropping the Blaneyites and the Bolandites*, i.e. those formerly in Fianna Fail who had already voted against him in the Dail; and, taking advantage of the Proportional Representation system of election, to use his personal following and charisma to drop the 16 dissidents still in the Party, and replace them with his young men.
His first defeat came in the nominations in the Fianna Fail Party, where, with the exception of Dublin - where branch members could be switched around at will, new branches recognised, etc., etc. — he was unable to dislodge those dissidents who had remained inside the Party. He did have some success in having new candidates adopted to run alongside old candidates. But, except in West Mayo and Roscommon, he failed to push these candidates up the list in the Irish preferential voting system. Finally he failed to get enough Fianna Failers returned.
LABOUR The decreased vote for Labour can be explained by three main factors: firstly, there is a traditional pattern of trade-unionised workers shifting their votes from Fianna Fail to Labour in periods of anti-Republican repression (this explained the increased Labour vote in the elections before the two previous coalition governments), and then to react violently when Labour enters coalition with Fine Gael, after the election, which is seen by large sections of the older working class as the party of counterrevolution.
This time the Labour Party was committed to the Coalition before the election. Therefore this crûcial section of the electorate divided: some voted Labour despite the Coalition; some refused to move from Fianna Fail; some gave their vote to Sinn Fein or Aontacht Eireann, with a sizeable chunk staying with Fianna Fail but giving their first preference to known Fianna Fail dissidents. This factor, as much as his personal following, explains the large vote for Charlie Haughey.
In the countryside, the ranchers' vote had over the last tew elections been moving from its traditional party Fine Gael to Fianna Fail, which was newly coming to defend its interests. In this election, they saw a possibility of getting their old traditional party back into office, and switched back to Fine Gael. To this must be added an urban middle class vote for "honesty in politics" and Law and Order, which was reflected in the vote for the traditional Lawyers' Party, Fine Gael. Some sections of the younger working class vote not imbued with the traditional anti-Blueshirt attitude of their fathers switched to Fine Gael as a sure way of bringing down the Fianna Fail of Union-Jack Lynch.
FUNDAMENTAL CONTRADICTION In a nutshell, the shift in this election to the Parties of coalition represents a fundamental contradiction which will be resolved in practice inside the Coalition government. Labour, with the exception of Conor Cruise O" Brien, Barry Desmond and Michael O'Leary got the votes of those who want an end to repression. Fine Gael got the Law and Order vote.
The coalition government will therefore be faced with the problem of implementing repression without provoking a division inside the parliamentary Labour Party between the "Republican" elements and the pro-imperialist Conor Cruise O'Brien elements.
This problem will be intensified by the inner-party struggle inside Fianna Fail Two deputies who achieved their purpose in this election were Haughey and Blaney. Blaney was the only Fianna Fail dissident to be returned who went to the election without the Party label. His election was described by the