Edition Bobbett2. Speeches and statements by Elizabeth F. Bobbett

1953 Rathdrum, By-election Meeting

Source: Wicklow People, 13.06.1953

Speaking at Rathdrum on Thursday night, with Mr. J. Cashman as Chairman, Miss Elizabeth F. Bobbett, Independent Farmer, said it was seventeen years since she had made her first public speech from a pig cart in that square. Since then she had tried faithfully to serve the interests of the people and of the farmers of this county and the country generally. She again stressed in answer to criticism that she was going forward in this election as an Independent Farmer, owing no party allegiance. She did not condemn any party, she held no bitterness towards any of them. It was her aim to work for anybody for the betterment of agriculture and of the country as a whole. Without the rural community and the produce of the farmers there could be no factories, no towns. Their trouble nowadays was the high cost of living, and she would do all she could to bring about a reduction. She asked the people to jog their memories and think back on what had been happening in the past few years. They could judge which party was to blame.

In 1948/49 Ireland faced a crisis, and without being an economist she believed they were facing an equally serious crisis to-day. In 1948 they got the £40 millions of American money, which was to have been spent on American instructions and to be repaid by the Dail. In 1949 the £ was devalued, and consequently their debt to the USA was increased substantially. Only this year they had to repay the first instalment of the interest, but from now on both price and interest will have to be met by the people, and it would form a heavy national debt upon them. One party blamed the Government to-day for the high rates of interest, but she believed they had no control over it, that it was the Bank of England which controlled all the money in this country. Until the parties in the Dail came together to amend the money laws of the country and use their credit for the benefit of their own country, there could be no hope for the future. In public addresses Mr. Sean Lemass, Minister for Industry and Commerce, had said that in 1953 they would see drastic changes in their financial policy and system. She must not have been such a “mug” as some people thought and said of her, as for years she had been harping on that very subject. If they had a financial system suited to the needs of Ireland they could restore the food subsidies, and by increased agricultural production increase their wealth, but what incentive had farmers to do that when the moment they did so prices dropped. Unfortunately their greatest exports were the youth of the country. There were 50,000 farmers employing labour and if each farmer was enabled to employ one man more the year round it would go far to solve that problem. Times had been better in the towns and the people flocked to them, but she advised that it would be wiser if they could get work on the land now to take it.

Their women deputies were not independent, and they voted as they were told to do by their parties and not from the point of view of women’s interests. It was very desirable that women should be directly represented in the Dail, and if every women of the county voted for her and that she was returned to the Dail, she would look after their interests. Some people thought that because a deputy was independent, he or she was of not much use, but she pointed out to those that the party member could sit or sleep and then when the rollcall came, vote according to directions, while the independent deputy had to watch everything that went on and vote according to his or her conscience. Those others had their bosses in Dublin, but the independent deputy had the electors in their constituency as their bosses. County Wicklow had given the lead to the rest of the country on many occasions and she suggested the electors should now set another headline for the first by being the first to return an independent women deputy. She had no ambition for public life, but as the farmers had confidence in her and felt she was capable of looking after their affairs, and fighting their cause, she would not fail them. It rested with the voters of County Wicklow whether she would be returned to fight their cause in the Dail, and if they did that she would continue to serve them there as faithfully as she had in the past.