The likelihood of this State having its first Labour Party Taoiseach was possibly foiled by an Irish Times report in 1927.
Dr Dermot Keogh, professor of history at UCC, explained that in August of that year it was established that the new Fianna Fail party would support a minority Labour government, with the Labour leader, Mr Tom Johnson, as Taoiseach.
Speaking at the Dr Douglas Hyde conference, Dr Keogh said a meeting took place at a hotel in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, to agree who would take which portfolio in government. Mr R.M. Smyllie of The Irish Times was at a bus stop when he noticed the politicians leave the hotel.
He inquired which room they had been in and there, allegedly accompanied by a bottle of whiskey, went through the waste-paper basket, where he uncovered various drafts of a possible cabinet.
The story was run on the front page of The Irish Times on August 15th, 1927, the day before a no-confidence debate in the Dail. The government had expected to lose, and the Taoiseach had already attended a farewell party for staff.
However, on the casting vote of the Ceann Comhairle, the government survived. It was helped by the fact that Alderman Jinks from Sligo had got drunk on the Sligo train, missing the vote. He would have supported Mr Johnson. And a Labour TD, later a party leader, Mr T.J. O'Connell, was in Canada. Had Labour won the vote, "the history of Ireland could have changed", Dr Keogh said.