1997 Revisited

Annals
1997 revisited

Michael Ring FG
Jim Higgins FG
Beverly Cooper Flynn FF
Enda Kenny FG
Tom Moffatt FF

HE may have been first elected in the 1994 by-election, but it was the 1997 General Election that really announced the arrival of Michael Ring as a phenomenal votegetter.
Ring surprised a lot of people with his performance, achieving what was a then record for any politician in a general election in Mayo, by amassing over 10,000 votes and being subsequently elected on the third count.
His vote was helped by the new constituency drawings, with Mayo becoming one five-seater area as opposed to the old two three-seaters, but his performance was still startling.
All six outgoing TDs stood for re-election and with Mayo losing a seat, someone had to suffer. As it turned out two TDs failed to be re-elected, Fianna Fáil duo PJ Morley and Seamus Hughes. Beverly Cooper-Flynn, who had been defeated by Ring in the 1994 by-election to replace her father, Padraig, comfortably got in, becoming the first woman in the history of Mayo politics to be elected to Dáil Éireann.
Overall, however, the election was a disaster for Fianna Fáil. The party therefore went from having four out of the six TDs in 1992 to having just two in ‘97 and Mayo was a triumph for Fine Gael, who secured three seats.
Jim Higgins and Enda Kenny were both elected, together with Cooper-Flynn, on the seventh count, leaving the three outgoing Fianna Fáil TDs to battle for the final seat.
PJ Morley, a TD since 1977, was the first to go, leaving a battle between Westport solicitor Seamus Hughes and Ballina doctor Tom Moffatt for the final seat.
Hughes polled 1,056 more first preference votes than Moffatt, but the ability of the Ballina man to garner healthy transfers from fellow town candidates Ernie Caffrey and Gerry Ginty pushed him ahead of Hughes before the transfer of Morley’s votes.
Hughes did manage to attract considerable support from Morley but so, too, did Moffatt and the Ballina man became the only Fianna Fáil candidate to last in the Dáil from 1992 to 2002. EMcG