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Ephemera is the transient material of everyday life. Sometimes looked at, perhaps considered for a time and then, more often than not, consigned to the dustbin of history. Ephemera is, however, a valuable source for social and local historians, as it tells us what people did and how they spent their time. Ephemera can be used to sharpen the recall of historians and, in the case of political ephemera, to illustrate the mechanisms of persuasion. Background. The first political ephemera was designed in the USA for the American Presidential Campaigns of the 1800’s. The idea quickly spread to Europe and political posters and documents slowly began to take a prominent role as politicians tried to tempt the voter one way or the other. In recent years the amount of political ephemera has increased immensely. Political ephemera can be divided into two broad headings, election literature (badges, flags, banners and papers – including postcards, stickers, posters, leaflets, advertisements, candidate cards, voting papers etc) used during particular campaigns and general political literature – newsletters, flyers etc. produced between campaigns and distributed in order to keep the voter informed. Large political collections exist in the National Library, the Linen Hall Library, in the UK and the US. There is a Centre for ephemera studies at the University of Reading.
To read more about Co. Roscommon Political Ephemera follow THIS LINK. These collections are part of our Co. Roscommon political archive. Only items that can be scanned or photographed have been included. Some material, such as our collection of newspaper cuttings are not included here. For a brief description of what the various categories of material are, follow this link.
Roscommon Anti Head Shop Lobby Group Leaflet. March 2010. Follow this link to view our Political Heritage collection (material up to and including 2008). (Note: In order to keep the databases manageable, for the local elections in 2009 we will catalogue material under the individuals name. Material that is not named to an individual will be catalogued under that persons party - see links below).
Political Posters. Follow this link to view photographic images of some of our political poster collection.
The following links contain lists of candidates for various elections held in Co. Roscommon. Where we have further information on the individual the name will have a link to that page (the name will be in blue): Our current lists are: (Blue links are live)
FOR THE 2009 LOCAL ELECTIONS we have catalogued material on it's own:
This site is non-political, however we would like to encourage donations to our collection, therefore we are happy to give our donors a full page each to display their material. Follow the links below (arranged in alphabetical order) to view the political ephemera of the following:
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A rare item, especially on Sunday 8th? A Pass to the 2009 Count at the Hyde Centre, Roscommon.
Invitation to launch of Political Heritage display in Roscommon Library. December 2008.
Reminder Card issued by Roscommon County Council in December 2008 asking people if they are registered to vote.
Images are not to scale.
A poster for Luke "Ming" Flanagan from the 2002 Election. (We don't have an original - please contact us if you do!). |
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If you have similar material and would like it to appear here, please contact us. |
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For those carrying out research and following a particular party line the following links might be appropriate. For party ephemera only follow the links below: (Blue links are live).
The following people have some connection with Co. Roscommon, though their political careers may have been elsewhere! We include them here for your information and enjoyment. (We welcome additions to this list).
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We would welcome material from retired members of Roscommon County Council and Dáil Éireann (or their families) and for other parties within the county e.g. Clann na Poblachta, The Labour Party etc. Thank you for your support.
We are always looking for new material for the collection. Posters, leaflets, letters, flyers, badges, rosettes and stickers, campaign newspapers and newsletters, car stickers, postcards, documents of any kind relating to politicians or political parties, letters, books, newspaper reports and cuttings, press releases etc. All material welcome. Any party and none!
And finally, for the ephemera enthusiast only, some general Roscommon Political Ephemera, not connected to any party, follow THIS LINK. If you have political material of any kind for Co. Roscommon, please contact us. |
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For a very interesting and superbly illustrated website dedicated to Irish Political Ephemera of all type (including material for Tom Foxe of the H.A.C. from Roscommon): follow THIS LINK. |
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