Dublin Corporation election, 1899

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Dublin Corporation election, 1899
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 1898March 1899 1902  

All 60 seats to Dublin Corporation
31 seats needed for a majority

 First partySecond party
 
Party United Irish League Irish National League
Seats won2718

Dublin Corporation election, 1899.svg
Map showing results by ward.

Council control before election

Redmonites

Council control after election

No Overall Control

An election to Dublin Corporation took place in March 1899 as part of that year's Irish local elections.

Dublin Corporation

Dublin Corporation, known by generations of Dubliners simply as The Corpo, is the former name given to the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin between 1661 and 1 January 2002. It is now known as Dublin City Council.

Contents

Background

The election, being the first following the 1898 changes to Irish local government, saw substantive changes to the franchise. Prior to these changes the franchise had been restricted to males over the age of 21 who had maintained a continual residence within the borough for the preceding 2 years and 8 months, thereby preventing Dublin's large lodger and floating tenement population from voting. [1] As a result of the changes the franchise increased from 7,964 in the previous elections to 38,719. Among these voters were 6,500 women who could vote for the first time. [2]

Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898

The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that established a system of local government in Ireland similar to that already created for England, Wales and Scotland by legislation in 1888 and 1889. The Act effectively ended landlord control of local government in Ireland.

Contest

The 60 seats for election were contested by 120 candidates; 18 Unionists, 10 Labourites, 88 Nationalists, and 1 representative of the Irish Socialist Republican Party. [3]

The Irish Socialist Republican Party was a small, but pivotal Irish political party founded in 1896 by James Connolly. Its aim was to establish an Irish workers' republic. The party split in 1904 following months of internal political rows.

This was the first time representatives of organised Labour participated in their own right, fighting under the banner of the Labour Electoral Association. Previously the Labour interest had been represented by Nationalist "Labour" spokespersons. That being said, the party only contested 10 of Dublins 60 seats, meaning the party did not even put forward 1 candidate per ward. [3]

Results

The election saw the Redmonites, who had previously dominated the council, substantially reduced. The Redmonites had previously held 44 of the 60 seats in the old council. [2] Following the election the Redmonites held only 18. United Irish League representation increased substantially to 27. Labour representation increased from 3 to 8, whilst Unionist representation declined to 7. [4]

Results by party

PartySeats±Votes%±%
United Irish League 27
Irish National League 18
Labour Electoral Association 8
Irish Unionist 7
Totals60100%

Post-election boundary extensions

Map of the area contained by the unreformed municipal boundaries. 1836 SDUK map-of-Dublin.jpg
Map of the area contained by the unreformed municipal boundaries.

At the time of the election Dublin council at the time was composed of 60 members, and was still restricted in area to its historic boundaries, contained to the south by the Grand Canal. This was despite the fact that proposals for extending the municipal borough had existed since the 1880s, in part to deal with the issue whereby residents of the Dublin suburbs had access to and benefited from city services, but were not subject to Dublin municipal taxation. By 1899 Dublin was the only major city in the United Kingdom which had not seen an expansion of its municipal boundaries. [5]

Grand Canal (Ireland) canal in Ireland

The Grand Canal is the southernmost of a pair of canals that connect Dublin, in the east of Ireland, with the River Shannon in the west, via Tullamore and a number of other villages and towns, the two canals nearly encircling Dublin's inner city. Its sister canal on the Northside of Dublin is the Royal Canal. The last working cargo barge passed through the Grand Canal in 1960.

A private members bill was raised in parliament, proposing to extend Dublins municipal boundaries to include several neighboring townships, and was fiercely opposed by Irish Unionists, although the incumbent Conservative government took a neutral position. The majority of councillors for the townships, who were also Unionists, opposed the plan, and several petitions opposed to the plan were submitted to parliament. Ultimately a deal was made whereby New Kilmainham, Drumcondra, Clonliffe, Glasnevin, and some county land was added to the borough, although the more populous southern townships of Pembroke and Rathmines were not. [5]

This resulted in the creation of some 5 extra wards, and the total number of councillors was increased to 80. [6] Twenty new members were thus elected in January 1901, of whom 9 were Unionists, thereby bringing Unionist representation up to 16. This meant that by January 1901 Unionists were returned to the 20% representation they enjoyed prior to 1899. [7]

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The 1899 Irish local elections were the first local elections following the reorganisation of Irish local government caused by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. The 1898 Act had changed the nature of Irish local governance, replacing the unrepresentative grand jury system, and making local government more democratic and representative. As a result, the 1899 election saw the traditional Unionist Landowning class, which had previously dominated much of Irish local politics, being replaced by a newer nationalist representation. Ulster's local government, however, remained Unionist in political outlook.

An election to Dublin Corporation took place in March 1905 as part of that year's Irish local elections. The election saw a small revival for Labour representatives, whilst the Unionist representation was cut by half.

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