ELECTION SHOCK

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31985, 12 May 1969, Page 13

ELECTION SHOCK

De Gaulle Away

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SNEEM (Irish Republic),

May 11. General de Gaulle, for years the guiding hand of the Fifth Republic, has turned his back on France’s raging political battles to begin a quiet, three-week holiday in Sneem, a village in County Kerry, 80 miles from Cork Airport. A special, jumbo-size bed » for the 6ft 6in-tall General, was delivered to the small private hotel in which the former French President and his wife are staying. The bed, 81ft long and 7ft wide, was brought from Dublin to the hotel, whose management has told the local tourist office that its 14 bedrooms are not available for five weeks.

From Paris it is reported that General de Gaulle's decision to be away from France during the campaign for the Presidential election on June 1, had come as a shattering blow to the Gaullists, who had hoped he would campaign for their candidate, the former Prime Minister, Mr Georges Pompidou. The General has family links with Ireland—his maternal grandmother was a Mrs McCartan, of County Down, Northern Ireland.