The 1938 Irish general election to the

10th Dáil 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

was held on Friday, 17 June following the dissolution of the

9th Dáil 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra a ...

on 27 May 1938 by the Presidential Commission on the request of

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (, ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was a prominent Irish statesman and political leader. He served several terms as head of govern ...

. It was a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

, less than a year after the previous election, the proximate cause being the government's loss of an opposition

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and m ...

recommending use of

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ...

to resolve

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

labour disputes.; The general election took place in 34 parliamentary constituencies throughout Ireland for 138 seats in

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland rea ...

. It was the first election held after the adoption of the

Constitution of Ireland The Constitution of Ireland ( ga, Bunreacht na hÉireann, ) is the fundamental law of Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. The constitution, based on a system of representative democracy, is broadly within the traditi ...

on 29 December 1937.

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...

won the first overall majority in the history of the State. The 10th Dáil met at

Leinster House Leinster House ( ga, Teach Laighean) is the seat of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland. Originally, it was the ducal palace of the Dukes of Leinster. Since 1922, it is a complex of buildings, of which the former ducal palace is the core ...

on 30 June to nominate the Taoiseach for appointment by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Douglas Hyde Douglas Ross Hyde ( ga, Dubhghlas de hÍde; 17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949), known as (), was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician and diplomat who served as the first President of Ireland from June 1938 t ...

and to approve the appointment of a new

government of Ireland The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The govern ...

on the nomination of the Taoiseach. Outgoing Taoiseach Éamon de Valera was re-appointed leading a single-party

government.

Result

Voting summary

Seats summary

Government formation

Fianna Fáil formed a majority government, the 2nd Government of Ireland.

First time TDs

* Erskine H. Childers * Daniel Hogan * James Hughes *

Frank Loughman Francis Loughman (1892 – 13 May 1972) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) and Senator from the 1930s to the 1960s. A pharmaceutical chemist before entering politics, Loughman was first elected to Dáil Éir ...

* Henry McDevitt * Thomas Mullen * Peter O'Loghlen * Mícheál Ó Móráin

Re-elected TDs

* William Broderick *

Eamonn Cooney Eamonn Cooney (died 7 February 1975) was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North constituency at the September 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the 1932 an ...

Richard Mulcahy Richard James Mulcahy (10 May 1886 – 16 December 1971) was an Irish Fine Gael politician and army general who served as Minister for Education from 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957, Minister for the Gaeltacht from June 1956 to October 1956, ...

James Reidy James Reidy (1890 – 7 December 1963) was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick constituency at the 1932 general election. He was re-elected at the 1933 gener ...

Outgoing TDs

Archie Heron Archibald Heron (29 August 1896 – 10 May 1971) was an Irish Labour Party politician and trade unionist. He was born in Portadown, County Armagh, to a presbyterian family, one of seven children of Samuel Heron, a physician and surgeon, and hi ...

(Lost seat) *

Gerrard McGowan Gerrard L. McGowan (died 17 August 1971) was an Irish Labour Party politician. As a child, he had to flee his home with his family when the Black and Tans torched it in 1920. A solicitor by profession, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a La ...

(Retired) * Edward Moane (Lost seat) * Sydney Minch (Lost seat) * Daniel O'Leary (Lost seat)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irish General Election, 1938 General election, 1938

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the authoritarian regime. ** State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France ...

10th Dáil June 1938 events

General election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...