Word: dev
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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After 16 years of rule, solemn old Eamon de Valera was out. In the Dail, longtime Dev-baiting Deputy James Dillon declaimed: "Thanks...
...Valera, whose Fianna Fail had grown lazy and complacent in 16 years of uninterrupted rule, seemed to be merely against MacBride. "If you don't return me," he told the voters, "Eire faces disaster." But he had little to promise on his own account. "Better a Dev you know than a devil you don't," was the best slogan Fianna members could think...
Place Your Bets. The opposition's reply to this was a unified cry of "Anything you can do, we can do better." But beyond that there seemed little chance of agreement between the parties opposing Dev. Clann workers scrawled "Is your trip really necessary?" on posters showing a De Valera rampant with the Fianna slogan, "We are ready to resume the advance." But with equal enthusiasm Laborite heelers amended MacBride posters proclaiming "A New Deal" with the words "Yes, but with the same old pack...
General Richard Mulcahy's once fiery Fine Gael, the last vestige of the Cosgrave government that preceded Dev, had the best electioneering machine (including a company of blue-kilted girl pipers that took Dublin by storm). But-as one of their critics said-"the undertaker's union is working against Fine Gael." Three of their aged front-bench deputies had died during the campaign. And nobody expected much of the Laborites, the fourth party...
There were some independents to swell the anti-De Valera ranks: irreverent, foxy Shopkeeper James Dillon, whose only program for years had been to heckle Dev from the floor of the Dail, and a certain bonesetter who asked re-election on the grounds that he mended all limbs gratis regardless of party affiliation. But the best the combined opposition could hope for seemed to be reducing Dev's majority to a mere plurality, and further confound an increasingly confused government. In that case Dev, who refused to consider joining a coalition, might resign, but the chances of forming...