The Tullymander

The Gerrymander that led to an independent electoral commission!

Serious students of Irish political history will remember the Labour TD for Meath Jim Tully for a few things. Tully served as Minister for Local Government from 1973 to 1977, in fairness there was a lot of social housing built under his tenure. At the time of his death in 1992, no other minister for local government had exceeded his house-building record of 25,000 a year for the four years of his tenure (1972–7). Impressive.

Tully was also Minister for Defence from June 1981 to March 1982. As Minister for Defence, he travelled to Egypt and was sitting just four rows behind Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt when Sadat was assassinated. Tully received facial and hand wounds in the attack. A piece of shrapnel, the size of a 50-cent coin, pierced his cheek and exited from his mouth. Some would argue a small price to pay to get as far away as possible from that disastrous Fine Gael/Labour coalition. Tully was lucky though. Eleven people were killed and twenty-eight others were wounded in the …