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| Percentage of seats gained by each of the three major parties, and number of seats gained by smaller parties and independents. |
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The Irish general election of 1977 was held on 16 June 1977 and is regarded as a pivotal point in twentieth century Irish politics. The general election took place in 42 parliamentary constituencies throughout Ireland for 148 seats in the lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann. The number of seats in the Dáil was increased by 4 from 144 to 148. The newly elected 148 members of the 21st Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 5 July when a new Fianna Fáil government replaced the incumbent Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition, with Jack Lynch becoming Taoiseach.
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In spite of having faced some controversial issues during its term of office, the ruling Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition looked set to defy political history by winning an unprecedented second term. This belief was further augmented following the so-called "Tullymander" of parliamentary constituencies. This refers to the Minister for Local Government James Tully, and his scheme of redrawing every constituency in the country in an effort to maximise the vote for the coalition partners. For instance in Dublin there were thirteen three-seat constituencies. It was hoped that the coalition partners would win two of the seats, leaving Fianna Fáil with only one seat. A similar tactic was used in rural areas where the party was at its strongest.
As a result of this, Fianna Fáil and its leader, Jack Lynch, believed that they couldn't win the general election. The party drew up a manifesto which offered the electorate a string of financial and economic "sweeteners", encouraging them to vote for Fianna Fáil. Some of the promises that were offered included the abolition of rates on houses, the abolition of car tax and the promise of reducing unemployment to under 100,000. Lynch agreed to the manifesto because he believed that the party needed something dramatic if it were to win the election. This was not the case.
In addition many Republican voters were angered by what they saw as Cosgrave's harsh line on the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and the handling of the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings which resulted in the perpetrators walking scott-free. Both the Irish Times and the Irish Press, which was then edited by Tim Pat Coogan, were extremely critical of the government's curtailment of freedom of speech and in particular of the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs Conor Cruise O'Brien which was used against the PIRA.
The Fianna Fáil campaign was based on the American model. Lynch travelled the length and breadth of the country, accompanied by his followers. His popularity was at its highest, and it soon became clear that the manifesto was unnecessary. Lynch's popularity alone was Fianna Fáil's biggest electoral asset. The party slogan, "Bring Back Jack", even played on Lynch's huge appeal.
In contrast to Fianna Fáil, the government parties of Fine Gael and the Labour Party fought the general election on their record in government. The redrawing of the constituency boundaries also gave them hope for success, however, they offered little else to the electorate apart from the policies they had been pursuing for the previous four years.
While towards the end of the campaign Fianna Fáil were expected to win the general election, nobody predicted the scale of that victory. An unprecedented twenty-seat majority in Dáil Éireann for Fianna Fáil saw the National Coalition swept from power in the biggest political hurricane in Irish history at the time. Only Éamon de Valera had ever done better, but only once out of 13 elections. Following the election defeat the leaders of Fine Gael and the Labour Party, Liam Cosgrave and Brendan Corish resigned as leaders of their respective parties, the first occasion in which a defeated Taoiseach or Tánaiste had done so.
"Tullymandering" was widely blamed for the scale of the coalition's defeat as the constituency boundaries had given them many seats that would be lost on only a small drop in their share of the vote. The new government established an independent commission to carry out future boundary revisions.
| Party | Leader | Seats | ± | % of seats |
First Pref votes |
% FPv | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fianna Fáil | Jack Lynch | 84 | +15 | 56.7 | 811,615 | 50.6 | +4.4 | |
| Fine Gael | Liam Cosgrave | 43 | –11 | 29.0 | 488,767 | 30.5 | –4.6 | |
| Labour Party | Brendan Corish | 17 | –2 | 11.5 | 186,410 | 11.6 | –2.1 | |
| Sinn Féin (Workers' Party) | Tomás Mac Giolla | 0 | New | 0 | 27,209 | 1.7 | – | |
| Irish Republican Socialist | Seamus Costello | 0 | New | 0 | 955 | 0.1 | – | |
| Communist Party | Michael O'Riordan | 0 | – | 0 | 544 | 0.0 | – | |
| Independent | N/A | 4 | +2 | 2.7 | 87,527 | 5.5 | +2.6 | |
| Spoilt votes | 13,743 | — | — | |||||
| Total | 148 | +4 | 100 | 1,616,770 | 100 | — | ||
| Electorate/Turnout | 2,118,606 | 76.3% | — | |||||
Independents include Independent Fianna Fáil (13,824 votes, 1 seat) and the Community group in Dublin (9,427 votes).
A total of 42 TDs were elected for the first time:
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