Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

We have to place the 1918 election in its international context, and that is a context of war and of revolution, the reverberations of the Russian Revolution in particular. The election happened just over one month from the ending of the First World War. Contrary to establishment versions of history, that war ended because of revolution. It ended because of German soldiers and sailors refusing to continue the war and, instead, establishing workers, sailors and soldiers councils, with the Kaiser abdicating in a desperate attempt to save capitalism in Germany. That was one of the many reverberations of the Russian Revolution that had happened a year previously and which spread ideas like workers' control, the liberation of women and national self-determination across Europe and around the world. It was widely welcomed by workers, the oppressed and those seeking an end to the war.

It was no different in Ireland, which, for example, saw over 10,000 pack into the Mansion House to welcome the October Revolution. The 1918 election is widely known for being the first parliamentary election here where there was universal male franchise and, after decades of struggle, women winning right to vote. The key event in 1918 was the mass movement against conscription earlier in the year, which was successful and saw Ireland's first general strike. That general strike also saw the decisive break with the pro-war, pro-imperialist Irish Parliamentary Party, which was then reflected in the general election. It demonstrated the power of the working class and the labour movement, which was seen in an explosion in militancy and membership of the trade union movement, with whole new sections becoming unionised.

In 1918 Labour had a stronger base across the island than Sinn Féin. The result of the election was the manifestation of the desire for self-determination and a rejection of imperialism, but the result also illustrated sectarian division; for example, in Ulster most contests were along sectarian lines, although in Belfast Labour did contest. It was a lost opportunity for the labour movement. It was a mistake for Labour to decide to wait and to allow Sinn Féin to take a majority in the Dáil. It was a missed opportunity to put forward working class politics - an internationalist anti-imperialism that would appeal to and unite working class people. It came just before momentous class battles like the engineers strike in Belfast and the Limerick Soviet. It was a missed opportunity to bring together working-class people, Catholic and Protestant, to fight for a socialist Ireland where the wealth would be under democratic control, which would be internationalist in outlook and would naturally align with working-class people in Britain and across Europe. That is a struggle we are still committed to today.

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