electionstracker

Ireland 1961 general election

What was the result of the 1961 general election in Ireland?

Fianna Fáil won 70 of 144 seats with 43.8% of the vote. 70.6% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Ireland
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Fianna Fáil won 70 of 144 seats with 43.8% of the vote; 70.6% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 0.6 points on 1957.

  • Fianna Fáil 70 −8 seats 43.8% −4.5 points
  • Fine Gael 47 +7 seats 32.0% +5.4 points
  • Labour Party 16 +4 seats 11.7% +2.5 points
  • Clann na Talmhan 2 −1 seat 1.5% −0.8 points
  • Clann na Poblachta 1 0 seats 1.1% −0.6 points
  • National Progressive Democrats 2 1.0%
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Ireland 1957 general election, party by party.

73 of 144 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 43.8%

    Share of the vote won by Fianna Fáil

    Fianna Fáil won 70 of 144 seats. A majority needs 73.

  2. +7 seats

    Seats gained by Fine Gael

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1957. Fianna Fáil lost 8 seats.

  3. 70.6%

    Voter turnout

    Down 0.6 points on 1957.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Fianna Fáil70−843.8−4.5512,073
Fine Gael47+732.0+5.4374,099
Labour Party16+411.7+2.5136,111
Clann na Talmhan2−11.5−0.817,693
Clann na Poblachta101.1−0.613,170
National Progressive Democrats21.011,490
Largest party without seats000.1−0.31,132
Independents6−3

± is the change against the Ireland 1957 general election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Fianna Fáil 512,073
  • Fine Gael 374,099
  • Labour Party 136,111
  • Clann na Talmhan 17,693
  • Clann na Poblachta 13,170
  • National Progressive Democrats 11,490
  • Largest party without seats 1,132
  • Independents

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

70.6% of the 1,670,860 registered voters cast a ballot (1,179,738 ballots), down 0.6 points on 1957. 1,168,404 of them were valid votes. The lowest turnout of this kind in our data, which begins in 1948.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Fianna Fáil43.8% of votes48.6% of seats
  • Fine Gael32.0% of votes32.6% of seats
  • Labour Party11.7% of votes11.1% of seats
  • Clann na Talmhan1.5% of votes1.4% of seats
  • National Progressive Democrats1.0% of votes1.4% of seats
  • Clann na Poblachta1.1% of votes0.7% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 4.5 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 3.2 by votes and 2.8 by seats; Fianna Fáil led Fine Gael by 11.8 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of