User:DillonKennedy

Sinn Féin had major advantages to winning the 1918 general election in Ireland against The Home Rule Party. Sinn Féin had many connections and network branches going threw out all the country which helped them gain more votes, also Sinn Féin members claimed to be heirs martyrs of 1916 and said that they wanted to complete the work that the 1916 rebels had started. The new laws in the electing sector ensured that many young voters were now voting for the first time, men over the age of twenty-one and all women above the age of thirty could now vote. The vast majority of these young voters had no intention of voting for 'The Home Rule Party'. Sinn Féin also took credit from bringing conscription into Ireland from England, conscription was when people over a certain age had no choice but to join the British army and fight the German's in 'World War 1', and because of people coming back from the war telling storys of the front line in France this made the Irish afraid to join the war. The Irish also thought that why should they fight the England's war, this made Sinn Féin gain a large number of votes, so they got a lot of votes from the younger population of Ireland. The Home Rule Party had many elderly candidates in there party which lead to lack of votes, John Dillon himself 'The Leader Of The Home Rule Party' was close enough to seventy. The local brand structure of The Home Rule Party had been declined. In twenty-five constituencies the party did not run as a candidate. The British 'first past the post' system of voting favoured Sinn Féin because it gave the party more seats than it proportion of the votes warranted. When all votes were counted in December 1918, Sinn Féin emerged with 73 seats,the Unionists with 26 and the Home Rule Party 6. The election in my opinion was always one sided and that Sinn Féin knew that they were going to come out on top instead of Home Rule Party.

Dillon Kennedy.