Jack Lynch protected democracy when he acted to stop gerrymandering of constituencies for electoral advantage, writes Martin O'Donoghue.
Garret FitzGerald's account of how the gerrymandering of constituencies by the government in power was ended (Irish Times, May 28th) is far too disingenuous to be let go uncorrected. His statement that a "sense of fairness prevailed" after the Tullymander failed in 1977 bears no relation to what really happened.
The actual sequence of events was quite different.
When the "Tullymander" proposals were published in 1974, Jack Lynch asked me to carry out an analysis of their likely effects, and to indicate the options for opposing the proposals.
My analysis showed that if the voting patterns of the 1973 election were repeated, it would be likely that Fianna Fáil would win only 65 seats, leaving 79 seats to the FG-Labour coalition and others, out of a total Dáil of 144.
I also pointed out that the Tully proposals were vulnerable to any fall in the vote share of the coalition in selected constituencies. I thought that Tully had made a mistake and that he seemed to be trying to maximise the possible number of seats which Labour could win.
I prepared an alternative redrawing of the constituencies, designed to minimise Fianna Fáil's chances of winning an overall majority (73 or more). This showed that Fianna Fáil would be allowed to win 68 or 69 seats, but that it would then take bigger swings in their favour before they could gain any more than that total.
As a consequence, there was no attempt at a systematic opposition to the Tully proposals; individual TDs were free to object to any specific aspect affecting them.
Once the Tully proposals became law, the preparations for the general election to defeat this gerrymander began. I had identified that there were 18 constituencies, out of the total 41, where Fianna Fáil could gain a seat. Detailed activity began, including targeted surveys of voter opinion in each of these constituencies on selected issues.
This preparatory work helped to form the basis for some of the proposals in the election manifesto.
In the 1977 election, Fianna Fáil actually won 19 extra seats - the 18 I had identified,plus an unexpected win in Louth, where Fianna Fáil secured three seats out of four, because of a complex pattern of vote transfers.
As to dealing with gerrymandering; Jack Lynch took two decisions in the wake of the Tully gerrymander.
First, he was determined to win the 1977 election.
He had become disappointed and disillusioned with the performance of the FG-Labour government.
When they were elected, he felt they should be given a chance to prove themselves, because they had a number of people with ability. However, in the wake of what he saw as various policy mistakes and blunders, he felt it important that they should not be re-elected.
Second, he decided that the commitment to end gerrymandering should be the first promise contained in the manifesto, and it is stated on the first page.
Unlike other elements in that programme for government, it was not discussed with the Fianna Fáil front bench or parliamentary party. He had earlier had to go along with the Kevin Boland gerrymander, just as Garret FitzGerald had to support the Tully gerrymander.
He knew that his decision would not be popular with many in the party, and he did not wish to provide his opponents with another possible opportunity to challenge him.
Ironically, Frank Dunlop in his book, Yes Taoiseach, is correct to complain that he knew nothing about this (or other elements in the manifesto); ironically, because the bulk of his account of this period is riddled with inaccuracies and distortions.
Jack Lynch's contribution to protecting democratic government did not end with warding off the threats posed by the 1970 Arms Crisis. He recognised the continuing danger posed by leaving the power to gerrymander in the hands of government.
That was why an interim census was held in 1979, so that the necessary arrangements, and terms of reference, for an independent commission to revise constituencies could be put in place before he retired.
These changes owed nothing to the emergence of any "sense of fairness" by the political parties, as Garret FitzGerald states. If the Tullymander had succeeded, the FG-Labour government would have been re-elected; there would have been no revision of constituencies because they had cancelled the 1976 census; and so the 1981 election would have been fought on the same Tullymander.
Jack Lynch's actions, in contrast, were those of a statesman, not those of politicians seeking to be re-elected.
Martin O'Donoghue was minister for economic planning and development in 1977-1979 and minister for education in 1982