The results of the elections to the new Irish Seana are much as one would expect; their entire circumstances ensured that matters would be left much as before. The sixty Irish senators are chosen in three different ways; eleven are appointed by a Taoiseach: six represent the two Irish Universities (three for Dublin University, three for the National University of Ireland) and the remaining forty three are elected from lists submitted by vocational organisations and by the Oireachtao, by the outgoing senators, the new Deputies, and the Councillors of the Local Authorities,
It is clear that nothing can be expected from the Tadseach's eleven; of them, eight are reliable Fianna Fail supporters, two are prominent protestants from the border counties, and the remaining one is James Connolly's daughter, Nora, as a sop to Fianna Fail'b radical image. The University elections provided the one happy important changee In the Dublin University election, the Liberal Socialist, Dr. Owen Sheehy-Skeffington (son of the martyred pacifist of 1916) regained the seat that he had lost in 1961 and headed the poll. Nothing so dramatic occurred in the National University poll, where the left wing elements are less well organised and have to contend against clerical influences; however, its left wing candidate, Dr. Maire De Paor, did well to receive 700 odd votes at her first election, and she may hope for more next time. The elections for the 43 "Panel Seats" were tame affairs, simply because there have been no local elections since 1961, and, as a result, 5 of the panel electorate is much the same as it was when it last operated. In the event, all parties were left as before. Such interest as there was appeared in the changes in the parties' personnel; the election of Labour's Jack McQuillan, in preference to its outgoing Senator, Con Desmond, the defeat of Dr. Noel Browne, and in Fine Gael, the replacement of Senator EeAe McGuire of the Federated Union of Employers by the techno = cratic economist, Garret FitzGerald.
But if the panel Election results have had little immediate positive effect, their influence has already had an unfortunate repercussion for the Labour Party. Senator Desmonds defeat, though giving the Party a Seanad spokesman for the west of Ireland, has left the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (Ireland's largest) without any senator. Accordingly, the latter feels a lessoned benevolence towards the Party that failed to back its candidates. This would not matter as much as it does, were it not for the overall delicacy of Party - Union relations. Before 1944, the I.T.G.W.U. was affiliated to the political body; in that year, its General Secretary William O'Brien, was prompted by a pathological hatred for the great trade unionist James Larkin, to withdraw the union's affiliation and indeed to create a private I.T.G.W.U., ‘National Labour Party'. The Party schism was soon healed, but affiliation was never restored, O'Brien's successors were prepared to pay the reasonable expenses of members who wished to act as candidates for any party. But in 1963, affiliation proposals were made at the Union Conference. They were backed by the Union President, John Conroy and by various members of the executive, They were opposed, however, by the General Secretary (and effective controller) F. Kennedy, the son of one of O'Brien's most obsequious underlings, and himself a believer in ‘business unionism.' He managed to have the affiliation proposal referred to a Committee and kept it so referred during the 1964 Conference. In the meantime however, Conroy had campaigned in the local branches for acceptance of the proposal; Labour's successes in the 1965 General Election reinforced the arguements for it; affiliation was expected to be passed at the 1965 Conference. Unfortunately, this coincided with the Seanad election results, which included the defeat, not only of Desmond but of. Conroy himself,