1981 Irish general election

The general election of 1981 was the first one of five during the 1980s. The election also saw three new leaders of the three main parties fight their first general election. Charles Haughey had become Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil at the end of 1979, Garret FitzGerald was the new leader of Fine Gael and Frank Cluskey was leading the Labour Party.

Haughey and Fianna Fáil seemed extremely popular with the electorate in early 1981. He was expected to call the election at the time of the Fianna Fáil ardfheis on 14 February, but the Stardust fire caused the ardfheis to be postponed, and the Republican hunger strike in the Maze Prison began in March.[3] By the dissolution in May, much of the earlier optimism in the party had filtered out. The Anti H-Block movement fielded abstentionist candidates in solidarity with the hunger strikers, undermining the Republican credentials of Fianna Fáil.

Fianna Fáil's manifesto promised more spending programmes and Fine Gael put forward a series of tax-cutting plans.

Election to the 22nd Dáil – 11 June 1981[4][5][6][7]
Party		Leader	Seats	±	% of seats	First pref. votes	% FPv	±%
	Fianna Fáil	Charles Haughey	78[lower-alpha 1]	–6	47.0	777,616	45.3	–5.3
	Fine Gael	Garret FitzGerald	65	+22	39.2	626,376	36.5	+6.0
	Labour	Frank Cluskey	15	–2	9.0	169,990	9.9	–1.7
	Anti H-Block	None	2	New	1.2	42,803	2.5	–
	Sinn Féin The Workers' Party	Tomás Mac Giolla	1	+1	0.6	29,561	1.7	0
	Socialist Labour	Noël Browne	1	New	0.6	7,107	0.4	–
	Socialist Party of Ireland	Eamonn O'Brien	0	New	0	571	0.0	–
	Communist	Eugene McCartan	0	0	0.0	358	0.0	–
	Independent	N/A	4	0	2.4	63,829	3.7	–1.8
Spoilt votes						16,168	—	—
Total			166[lower-alpha 1]	+18	100	1,734,379	100	—
Electorate/Turnout						2,275,450	76.2%	—

Independents include Independent Fianna Fáil (13,546 votes, 1 seat).

Fianna Fáil lost seats as a result of sympathy to the Anti H-Block candidates and the attractive tax proposals of Fine Gael. It was the worst performance for Fianna Fáil in twenty years. Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Frank Cluskey lost his seat, necessitating a leadership change with Michael O'Leary succeeding Cluskey. A Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition government came to power. Fine Gael and the Labour Party formed the 17th Government of Ireland, a minority coalition government, with Garret FitzGerald becoming Taoiseach.

The following changes took place at this election:

• 20 outgoing TDs retired
• 18 additional seats added to the Dáil
• 127 outgoing TDs stood for re-election (also Pádraig Faulkner, the outgoing Ceann Comhairle who was automatically returned)
  • 109 of those were re-elected
  • 18 failed to be re-elected
• 56 successor TDs were elected
  • 50 were elected for the first time
  • 6 had previously been TDs
• There were 7 successor female TDs, replacing 3 outgoing, increasing the total by 4 to 11.

Where more than one change took place in a constituency the concept of successor is an approximation for presentation only. Where a number of related constituency changes took place in an area, such as Cork, the outgoing constituency for retiring TDs and the allocation of new seats are approximations for presentation only. Outgoing TDs re-elected in a new constituency, with no related changes, are not recorded as a change

• Members of the 15th Seanad

• Nealon, Ted; Brennan, Séamus (eds.). Nealon's guide: 22nd Dáil & Seanad: election '81. Platform Press. ISBN 0-9505984-3-7.