1925 Seanad election

An election for 19 of the 60 seats in Seanad Éireann, the senate of the Irish Free State, was held on 17 September 1925. The election was by single transferable vote, with the entire country being used as a 19-seat constituency.
The election saw eight Cumann na nGaedheal members elected, as well as three Labour Party, three Farmers' Party, and five others.
There were 76 candidates on the ballot paper. Voters ranked candidates by preference at least a few, but did not have to rank all of them. Although bearing multiple marked preferences, each vote was to be used to elect just one member in the end. Of the two main political parties, the larger did not formally endorse any candidates, while the other boycotted the election. Voter turnout was low, and the outcome was considered unsatisfactory by some.
In subsequent elections, senators were elected by the Oireachtas rather than by the electorate.

Vacancies

The 1922 Constitution 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.
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.

Candidates

There were three methods of being included on the ballot. Outgoing Senators could nominate themselves for re-election, and all 19 did so. The Seanad could nominate a number of candidates equal to the number of vacancies, and the Dáil could nominate twice the number of vacancies. The Dáil and Seanad nominations were by single transferable vote and secret ballot. The minimum age for Senators was 35 years.
The Seanad resolved on 30 April to form a committee to decide procedure for its nominations; the committee drafted a resolution in June, which was amended and passed by the Seanad on 19 June. 29 applicants contested the Seanad nominations on 1 July. Apart from two Labour Party members, the candidates were Independents. 47 of the 60 Senators voted, including 18 of the 19 who were themselves standing for re-election. 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. O'Sullivan describes the results as "a very great disappointment... the list could not compare with the list of the ten rejected." Oliver St. John Gogarty made a similar remark in the Seanad itself after the results were announced.
The rejected ten were: David Barry, general manager of the British and Irish Steam Packet Company; Sir Laurence Grattan Esmonde, brother of Senator Thomas Grattan Esmonde, Bart; Lady Gregory; John Horgan; Hugh Law; John McCann, a stockbroker; The McGillicuddy of the Reeks; William Lombard Murphy, son of William Martin Murphy and proprietor of the Irish Independent; Sir John Harley Scott, a Unionist former Mayor of Cork; and J.J. Stafford, a County Wexford businessman.
Cumann na nGaedheal, the party which backed the 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 of Kevin O'Higgins and W. T. Cosgrave. The 1924 Army 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. The parliamentary party held two selection conventions, on 2 and 6 July 1925, and when the leadership's candidates did badly a free vote was offered in the Dáil with all candidates nominally endorsed by the party.
The Dáil nominations were decided on 8 July. 57 candidates contested; 101 TDs voted, with one ballot deemed ineligible. 52 TDs did not vote, including all 44 abstentionist Sinn Féin TDs, who were ineligible to vote as they had not taken the Oath of Allegiance. TDs supported candidates on party lines. Of the 38 successful nominees, O'Sullivan classifies 21 as supporters of the Cumann na nGaedheal Government, 9 as Independent, 5 as in the Farmers' Party, and 3 as in the Labour Party. 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.

Campaign

The usual Irish local, personal canvassing strategy was impractical across a nationwide constituency, leading to a relatively quiet campaign. 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. It presented the election as nonpartisan. 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 the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Numerous interest groups produced lists of approved candidates, including doctors, publicans, motorists, ex-servicemen's associations, and the livestock trade. Candidates endorsed by temperance groups fared badly. The Catholic Truth Society circulated, to little effect, a list of outgoing Senators it condemned for not having opposed a controversial motion pertaining to divorce.
Sinn Féin, under the leadership of Éamon de Valera, called for a boycott of the election. Sinn Féin had not boycotted the 1923 Dáil election, but rather contested it on an abstentionist platform. De Valera would later lead his Fianna Fáil party, founded in 1926, into the Oireachtas after the June 1927 Dáil election.

Election

The election was by single transferable vote, with the entire Irish Free State forming a single, 19-seat constituency. All citizens over 30 had a vote. Since the voting age for Dáil and local elections was 21, a separate electoral roll was maintained for the Seanad election.
The 76 candidates were arranged alphabetically on a ballot paper long and wide. The Electoral 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.
The low voter turnout was blamed on the Sinn Féin boycott, wet weather across the country, and the shorter than usual hours of polling. Turnout varied widely, from 8.2% in Mayo North to 43% in Monaghan. Another factor was the large, intimidating ballot paper; O'Sullivan described it as "a fiasco", 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."

Results

Counting

The ballots were initially collected to one centre within each Dáil constituency to count and sort the first-preference votes. This took almost a week. On 25 September, the ballots were sent to Dublin, the totals checked centrally, and redistribution of transfers begun. Initially there were 10 count officials, rising to 40 by the end. On 5 October, the first candidate was returned, on the 45th count. Counting continued until 19 October.
Harold Gosnell said that there was more news coverage of the count than of the preceding campaign: "the counting of the ballots under applied on a national scale attracts wide attention, and the results are sure to reflect the opinions manifested by the electors".

Details

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. Thus, STV proved itself both able to elect those with local support and those with thinly-spread dispersed support.
About 12% of valid ballots were exhausted, found to be non-transferable when eligible for transfer.. Less than 3 percent of the ballots cast were spoiled..
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 and the Farmers' Party, did relatively well. Some interest groups also did well – vintners, ex-servicemen. Others did not — doctors, academics, women, and especially Irish language revivalists: all four candidates supported by the Gaelic League lost, including outgoing Senator and future president Douglas Hyde. The Irish Times reported that licensed liquor dealers, ex-soldiers, farmers, doctors and businessmen received their due in the election.
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.
The quota 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.

Name	County	Occupation	Nomination	First-preference votes	Final result	Final count	Party	Notes
	Galway	Director of various public companies and chairman of the Irish Branch of British Shareholders' Trust	Seanad	734	Eliminated	7		Baron ffrench
'	Dublin	Surgeon	Outgoing	8279	Elected w/o quota	65
'	Louth	Baronet	Seanad	8043	Elected	65
'	Limerick	Farmer	Outgoing	7117		65	'
'	Dublin	Medical Doctor	Seanad	5658	Elected w/o quota	65
	Dublin	Solicitor	Seanad	4328	Eliminated	63
	Dublin	Barrister-at-law	Outgoing	2787	Eliminated	33
	Wexford	Farmer	Seanad	2044	Eliminated	25	'	Sought women's vote
	Dublin	Farmer	Outgoing	5943	Eliminated	61
	Dublin	Journalist	Dáil	1612	Eliminated	20	Labour Party	Wrote under the pen name "Andrew E. Malone"
	Dublin	Teacher	Dáil	1057	Eliminated	11	'
	Dublin	Surgeon	Seanad	3792	Eliminated	57
	Dublin	Fruit merchant	Seanad	1393	Eliminated	19
'	Dublin	Farmer	Outgoing	6431	Elected w/o quota	65	'
	Cork	Journalist	Dáil	2056	Eliminated	32	'
	Dublin	Farmer	Dáil	3180	Eliminated	35		Supporter of livestock trade
'	Kildare	National school teacher	Outgoing	10693	Elected	51	Labour Party
	Kilkenny	Iron founder and manufacturer	Outgoing	5938	Eliminated	60	'
	Cork	Secretary-director of public company	Dáil	2993	Eliminated	42	'
'	Kilkenny	Farmer	Dáil	7499	Elected	62	Farmers' Party
	Dublin	Merchant	Dáil	2621	Eliminated	30	'	Of Eason & Son newsagents.
'	Dublin	Grocer and vintner	Dáil	9024	Elected w/o quota	65		Licensed vintners' lobby
	Dublin	Author and Independent TD	Dáil	512	Eliminated	4		Died by suicide on 27 October 1925
	Cork	Joiner	Seanad	5754	Eliminated	64	Labour Party
'	Dublin	Trade union official	Outgoing	6844	Elected	65	Labour Party
	Dublin	Solicitor	Dáil	2799	Eliminated	38
	Dublin	Journalist	Dáil	2000	Eliminated	22	'
'	Tipperary	Major-General	Dáil	9712	Elected	45
	Dublin	Journalist and industrial organiser	Seanad	334	Eliminated in 2nd Count	1		Sought women's vote
	Dublin	Journalist and barrister-at-law	Seanad	3346	Eliminated	40
	Cork	Solicitor	Dáil	2037	Eliminated	23	'
	Dublin	Trade union organiser	Dáil	4828	Eliminated	50	Labour Party
	Westmeath	Lt.-Colonel	Seanad	785	Eliminated	8		Ex-servicemen's lobby
	Dublin	Dean of the Celtic Faculty in the National University of Ireland	Outgoing	1721	Eliminated	28	'
	Dublin	General secretary	Seanad	1273	Eliminated	18	Labour Party
	Wexford	Farmer and businessman	Outgoing	2884	Eliminated	37	'
	Dublin	Fellow and tutor of Trinity College	Dáil	1168	Eliminated	14	'
	Wexford	Farmer	Dáil	4777	Eliminated	49	Farmers' Party
'	Wicklow	Merchant and farmer	Dáil	11857	Elected	54	'	Licensed vintners' lobby
	Dublin	Surgeon	Dáil	3202	Eliminated	36	'	Hospitals' lobby
'	Cork	Farmer	Outgoing	6624	Elected w/o quota	65	Farmers' Party
	Cork	Merchant	Outgoing	2249	Eliminated	27	'
	Mayo	Surgeon	Dáil	2059	Eliminated	26	'
	Dublin	Estate agent	Dáil	4034	Eliminated	46
	Dublin	Surgeon	Seanad	626	Eliminated	5
	Galway	Medical doctor and university professor	Dáil	1636	Eliminated	21	'
	Laois	Wholesale merchant	Outgoing	5423	Eliminated	56	'
'	Longford	Merchant	Dáil	7662	Elected w/o quota	65	'
	Cavan	Farmer	Dáil	5768	Eliminated	55	'	Grandfather of actor T. P. McKenna
	Dublin	Medical profession	Dáil	1183	Eliminated	15	'
	Clare	Proprietor of the Raheen Rural Industries	Outgoing	4025	Eliminated	48
	Dublin	Gentleman	Dáil	789	Eliminated	9	'	Created a marquis in the Papal nobility by pope Leo XIII.
	Dublin	Barrister-at-law	Dáil	3601	Eliminated	43
	Dublin	Secretary and director of public companies	Dáil	3876	Eliminated	44		Business candidate
	Dublin	Journalist	Dáil	1697	Eliminated	24	'
	Dublin	Married woman	Seanad	2659	Eliminated	39		Wife of Richard Mulcahy, and sister of James Ryan
	Tipperary	National school teacher	Dáil	1278	Eliminated	16
	Dublin	Merchant and manufacturer	Outgoing	1210	Eliminated	17	'
	Galway	Professor of Romance Languages in University College Galway	Seanad	1056	Eliminated	13
	Dublin	Architect	Seanad	497	Eliminated	3
'	Kildare	Cattle salesman and farmer	Dáil	6740	Elected w/o quota	65	'	Supporter of livestock trade
	Dublin	Merchant	Outgoing	4011	Eliminated	58	'
'	Dublin	Irish Secretary Railway Clerks' Association	Outgoing	12336	Elected	51	Labour Party	Railwaymen's candidate
	Dublin	Manager	Dáil	660	Eliminated	6	'
'	Dublin	General secretary	Dáil	8238	Elected	59	Farmers' Party
'	Limerick	Merchant	Dáil	6205	Elected w/o quota	65	'
	Dublin	Gentleman	Dáil	1022	Eliminated	10	'	Caught up in the 1924 Irish Army Mutiny
	Wicklow	Cycle manufacturer and motor trader	Outgoing	2448	Eliminated	31	'
'	Kildare	Veterinary surgeon and bloodstock breeder	Outgoing	6248	Elected w/o quota	65	'
	Kildare	Farmer	Dáil	5423	Eliminated	53	Farmers' Party
	Dublin	Barrister-at-law	Seanad	413	Eliminated	2		Nephew of John Edward Pigot, and brother of Edward Pigot
	Limerick	Farmer	Dáil	4281	Eliminated	41	Farmers' Party
	Waterford	Insurance agent	Dáil	3436	Eliminated	34	Labour Party
	Dublin	Wholesale merchant	Seanad	2028	Eliminated	29
	Dublin	Managing director	Seanad	1123	Eliminated	12		Motorists' lobby
	Monaghan	Farmer	Dáil	14082	Elected	47