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1994 Cork North-Central by-election

by-election to the 27th Dáil

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ96368345 ↗
Source-derived summary

A Dáil by-election was held in the constituency of Cork North-Central in Ireland on Thursday, 10 November 1994, to fill a vacancy in the 27th Dáil. It followed the death of Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) Gerry O'Sullivan on 5 August 1994.

The writ of election to fill the vacancy was agreed by the Dáil on 18 October 1994.

The by-election was won by the Democratic Left candidate Kathleen Lynch, a member of Cork City Council. It was the second and final time Democratic Left would ever win a by-election.

Among the candidates were Senator Billy Kelleher, who would later serve as a TD, Colm Burke who would also go on to serve TD, Cork County Councillor Michael Burns, and Cork City Councillors Jimmy Homan and Con O'Leary.

On the same day, a by-election took place in Cork South-Central.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “1994 Cork North-Central by-election” is by-election to the 27th Dáil. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cork, North-Central and by-election, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1994—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Cork, North-Central and by-election is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “by-election to the 27th Dáil” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q96368345. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1994.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “1994 Cork North-Central by-election”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 1994 Cork North-Central by-election primary sources, 1994 Cork North-Central by-election archive and Cork research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1994 Cork North-Central by-election”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1994 Cork North-Central by-election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.