Ireland: The Mixture as Before

The only thing wrong with last week's general election in Ireland was that it didn't solve anything. The campaign was one of the shortest on record —lasting only four weeks after Premier Sean Lemass decided to take his Fianna Fail Party to the country.

After 3½ years of rule dependent on an alliance with independent members of the Dail—the Irish lower house—Lemass hoped to get a working majority. The opposition came from the Fine Gael Party led by James Dillon and the small but aggressive Labor Party of Brendan Corish. Lemass could, and did, campaign on the economic progress of...