November 1982 Irish general election
election to the 24th Dáil
The November 1982 Irish general election to the 24th Dáil was held on Wednesday, 24 November, three weeks after the dissolution of the 23rd Dáil on 4 November by President Patrick Hillery, on the request of Taoiseach Charles Haughey following a defeat of the government in a motion of confidence. The general election took place in 41 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas.
The 24th Dáil met at Leinster House on 14 December to nominate the Taoiseach for appointment by the president and to approve the appointment of a new government of Ireland. Garret FitzGerald was appointed Taoiseach, forming the 19th government of Ireland, a coalition government of Fine Gael and the Labour Party.
Campaign
The second general election of 1982 took place just nine months after the election in February of the same year. It was the first time there had been three general elections within eighteen months.
The general election was caused by the loss of support of the Independent TD Tony Gregory and the Workers' Party for the Fianna Fáil government. This was due to the government introducing substantial budget cuts, which the left-wing TDs would not support. While economic issues dominated the campaign, the parties were weary of having to fight yet another general election.
Result
Independents include Independent Fianna Fáil (7,997 votes, 1 seat).
The public source identifies “November 1982 Irish general election” as election to the 24th Dáil. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around November, Irish and general.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “November 1982 Irish general election”, the useful work is to connect “election to the 24th Dáil” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1662746. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1982.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. 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.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “November 1982 Irish general election”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow November 1982 Irish general election primary sources, November 1982 Irish general election archive and November research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “November 1982 Irish general election”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “November 1982 Irish general 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.