Richard Gogan recalls Sinn Féin strategy in the lead up to the 1918 general election including personation.
Richard Gogan canvassed for Sinn Féin during all of the elections leading up to the 1918 general election. He cycled from Dublin to Clare to see Éamon de Valera elected in 1917.
The Sinn Féin candidate for the Longford by-election in 1917, Joe McGuinness although in prison in Lewes won the seat with the election slogan,
Put him to get him out.
Richard Gogan was one of a number of armed Volunteers sent to Armagh for a by-election in 1917. On another occasion in Waterford he remembers dressing as a member of the De La Salle order and voting eight times.
During the 1918 general election Richard Gogan campaigned for Sean T O'Kelly.
It was a landslide as you know for Sinn Féin. The Irish Party was practically wiped out.
This clip is from an interview filmed with Richard Gogan during the production of ‘Ireland A Television History’ in 1979. The interviewer is Robert Kee.
‘Ireland A Television History’ was a 13 part series written and presented by Robert Kee looking at the complexities of Irish history.
The series traces the development of Ireland from pre Christian times to the late 1970s concentrating on the creation of an independent republic and the roots of the Troubles.
‘Ireland a Television History’ a BBC production was broadcast on RTÉ and BBC at the same time in 1980 and 1981.
In an article for the RTÉ Guide, Robert Kee was asked is the series aimed at a British audience? He replied,
"No it’s aimed at those (mainly in Britain) who are less familiar with the subject than they ought to be; and at those (in Ireland, North and South) who think they know but don’t".
