Cork Mid (Dáil constituency)

For the 1885–1922 constituency of the United Kingdom House of Commons and the 1919–1921 First Dáil, see Mid Cork (UK Parliament constituency).

Cork Mid was a Dáil constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature) from 1961 to 1981. The constituency was represented by 4 deputies (Teachtaí Dála, commonly known as TDs) from 1961 to 1977, and then 5 from 1977 until its abolition in 1981. The method of election was proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

Cork Mid
Former Dáil constituency
Former constituency
Created	1961
Abolished	1981
Seats	4 (1961–1977) 5 (1977–1981)
Local government areas	County Cork (1961–1981) Cork county borough (1977–1981)
Created from	Cork North
Replaced by	Cork North-Central Cork South-Central

Boundaries

From 1961 to 1969, its boundaries were defined as: "The administrative county of Cork except the portions thereof which are comprised in the borough constituency of Cork and the county constituencies of North-East Cork and South-West Cork."^[1]

From 1961 to 1977, its boundaries were defined as: "The administrative county of Cork except the portions thereof which are comprised in the borough constituency of Cork and the county constituencies of North-East Cork, South-West Cork and South Kerry."^[2]

From 1977 to 1981, its boundaries were defined as: "The administrative county of Cork, except the parts thereof which are comprised in the constituencies of Cork North-East, Cork South-West and Kerry South; and the following wards in the county borough of Cork: Bishopstown E, Gillabbey B, Gillabbey C, Glasheen A, Glasheen B, Glasheen C, Pouladuff A, Pouladuff B, The Lough, Togher A, Togher B."^[3]

TDs

Teachtaí Dála (TDs) for Cork Mid 1961–1981[4]
Key to parties   FF = Fianna Fáil   FG = Fine Gael   Lab = Labour
Dáil	Election	Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)
17th	1961[5]		Dan Desmond (Lab)		Seán McCarthy (FF)		Con Meaney (FF)		Denis J. O'Sullivan (FG)	4 seats 1961–1977
	1965 by-election[6]		Eileen Desmond (Lab)
18th	1965[7]				Flor Crowley (FF)		Thomas Meaney (FF)		Donal Creed (FG)
19th	1969[8]		Philip Burton (FG)		Paddy Forde (FF)
	1972 by-election[9]				Gene Fitzgerald (FF)
20th	1973[10]		Eileen Desmond (Lab)
21st	1977[11]										Barry Cogan (FF)
22nd	1981	Constituency abolished. See Cork North-Central and Cork South-Central

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

Elections

^ *: Outgoing TD

1977 general election

1977 general election: Cork Mid^[11][12]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Fianna Fáil	Gene Fitzgerald[*]	19.9	12,179
	Fianna Fáil	Thomas Meaney[*]	19.4	11,877
	Labour	Eileen Desmond[*]	14.5	8,902	9,001	9,112	10,276
	Fine Gael	Donal Creed[*]	13.2	8,088	8,163	8,241	10,413
	Fianna Fáil	Barry Cogan	10.7	6,563	7,545	8,151	8,259	8,595
	Fine Gael	Frank Crowley	7.6	4,681	4,695	4,777	5,614
	Fianna Fáil	John Dennehy	7.4	4,522	5,292	6,069	6,188	6,470
	Fine Gael	Seán O'Leary	7.2	4,436	4,468	4,480
Electorate: 75,031   Valid: 61,248   Spoilt: 446 (0.7%)   Quota: 10,209   Turnout: 61,694 (82.2%)[13]

1973 general election

1973 general election: Cork Mid^[10][14][15]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	Fianna Fáil	Thomas Meaney	25.6	10,400
	Fianna Fáil	Gene Fitzgerald	23.6	9,584
	Fine Gael	Donal Creed	19.1	7,728	8,273
	Labour	Eileen Desmond	15.2	6,170	7,152	8,188
	Fine Gael	Philip Burton	13.9	5,629	6,245	6,406
	Fine Gael	Daniel O'Leary	2.6	1,055	1,198	1,471
Electorate: 49,402   Valid: 40,566   Quota: 8,114   Turnout: 82.1%

1972 by-election

Following the death of Fianna Fáil TD Paddy Forde on 13 May 1972, a by-election was held on 2 August 1972. The seat was won by the Fianna Fáil candidate Gene Fitzgerald.

1972 by-election: Cork Mid^[9][14][15]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Fianna Fáil	Gene Fitzgerald	49.5	19,959	20,214
	Fine Gael	Denis J. O'Sullivan	31.6	12,530	12,788
	Labour	Eileen Desmond	15.9	6,301	6,711
	Aontacht Éireann	Paddy O'Callaghan	3.0	1,172
Electorate: 49,402   Valid: 39,962   Quota: 19,982   Turnout: 80.9%

1969 general election

1969 general election: Cork Mid^[8][16]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Fianna Fáil	Thomas Meaney	23.0	8,978
	Fine Gael	Donal Creed	18.9	7,400	7,491	8,583
	Fine Gael	Philip Burton	13.6	5,310	5,351	5,686	6,297	6,626	7,358
	Labour	Eileen Desmond	12.6	4,936	4,997	5,129	6,762	7,000	7,088
	Fianna Fáil	Paddy Forde	11.0	4,284	4,774	4,917	5,004	8,000
	Fianna Fáil	Batt Donegan	8.9	3,468	3,859	3,878	4,102
	Labour	Neil Lehane	7.3	2,866	2,962	2,986
	Fine Gael	Patrick Lombard	4.7	1,821	1,836
Electorate: 47,880   Valid: 39,063   Quota: 7,813   Turnout: 81.6%

1965 general election

1965 general election: Cork Mid^[7][14]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Labour	Eileen Desmond	25.0	10,041
	Fianna Fáil	Flor Crowley	19.7	7,884	8,185
	Fine Gael	Donal Creed	15.2	6,103	6,792	6,949	7,461	7,890	8,011
	Fianna Fáil	Thomas Meaney	14.2	5,683	5,870	5,939	5,969	6,130	8,948
	Fine Gael	Denis J. O'Sullivan	12.3	4,935	5,278	5,328	5,602	5,939	6,044
	Fianna Fáil	Paddy Forde	7.7	3,099	3,304	3,425	3,464	3,578
	Independent	Thomas O'Sullivan	2.7	1,089	1,143	1,189	1,199
	Fine Gael	Edward McCarthy	2.0	789	897	937
	Independent	Sylvester Cotter	1.2	498	627
Electorate: 50,220   Valid: 40,121   Quota: 8,025   Turnout: 79.9%

1965 by-election

Following the death of Labour Party TD Dan Desmond on 9 December 1964, a by-election was held on 10 March 1965. The seat was won by the Labour Party candidate Eileen Desmond, widow of the deceased TD.

1965 by-election: Cork Mid^[6][14]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	Fianna Fáil	Flor Crowley	36.2	13,779	13,932	15,093
	Labour	Eileen Desmond	33.5	12,752	12,937	20,756
	Fine Gael	Donal Creed	28.8	10,957	11,105
	Independent	Sylvester P. Cotter	1.6	590
Electorate: 50,220   Valid: 38,078   Quota: 19,040   Turnout: 75.8%

1961 general election

1961 general election: Cork Mid^[5][14]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4
	Labour	Dan Desmond	27.3	10,035
	Fine Gael	Denis J. O'Sullivan	21.2	7,787
	Fianna Fáil	Con Meaney	17.9	6,586	7,039	7,101	7,736
	Fianna Fáil	Seán MacCarthy	17.7	6,499	7,315	7,335	8,523
	Fine Gael	Timothy Desmond	10.8	3,976	5,115	5,457	5,575
	Fianna Fáil	David McGrath	5.1	1,890	2,162	2,170
Electorate: 49,390   Valid: 36,773   Quota: 7,355   Turnout: 74.5%

See also

• Dáil constituencies
• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• Historic Dáil constituencies
• Elections in the Republic of Ireland