Tomorrow, 29 November Ireland goes to the polls, and even at this late stage the outcome is far from certain.

Looking back to the 1918 General Election held in the days that followed the end of the First World War, and one can trace the start of a public fascination with such events.

The election of 1918 was a fascinating contest as the writer SJL reminded readers of the Irish Press newspaper in the 1970s:

Excitement mounted to fever pitch in Ireland coming up to palling day—December 14th of the 1918 General Election. Among workers in the Sinn Fein camp there was an awareness that something rare and dramatic was happening. But the portents were too incredible to be true and few Sinn Feiners were prepared to forecast the full extent of the victory that was within their grasp.

In Britain the issues at stake were a far cry from those worrying Irish voters and from those of previous elections. The cries of "Home Rule" and "Votes for Women" were no longer heard. Instead there was much talk of "hanging the Kaiser" and of making Germany pay the cost of the war. Indeed more eloquent than anything of what was on the mind of the British voter were the six points of Lloyd George's election programme: 'Trial of the Kaiser; Punishment of those responsible for atrocities; Fullest indemnities from Germany; Britain for the British, socially and industrially; Rehabilitation of those broken in the war; A happier country for all."

There was much interest in how women would use the vote which they were exercising for the first time and even more interest in how the seventeen women candidates would fare. But, though their number included Christabel Pankhurst, only one  Constance Markievicz was to be elected….

The outcome was eagerly reported but it wasn’t to be the end of British rule in Ireland and a War of Independence followed.