Dublin St Stephen's Green (UK Parliament constituency)

St Stephen's Green
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
Dublin St Stephen's Green constituency within Dublin, as it existed from 1885 to 1918.
Dublin within Ireland. Map utilises the modern administrative boundaries.
1885–1922
Seats	1
Created from	Dublin City
Replaced by	Dublin South

St Stephen's Green, a division of Dublin, was a borough constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the United Kingdom House of Commons from 1885 until 1922 on the first past the post electoral system.

From the dissolution of 1922, shortly before the establishment of the Irish Free State, the area was no longer represented in the UK Parliament.

Boundaries

This constituency was named for St Stephen's Green and comprised parts of the south-east of the city of Dublin. ^[1]

From 1885 to 1918, it was defined as: ^[2]

Exchange Ward, Fitzwilliam Ward, Mansion House Wards, and those parts of the South Dock and Trinity wards not contained within the Dublin Harbour constituency, and that part of the parliamentary borough outside of the municipal borough boundary not contained within the Dublin Harbour constituency.

From 1918 to 1922, it was defined as: ^[3]

the Royal Exchange, Fitzwilliam and Mansion House wards and those parts of the South Dock and Trinity wards not contained within the Dublin Harbour constituency.

History

Prior to the 1885 general election, the city was the undivided two-member Dublin City constituency. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Dublin was divided into four divisions: College Green, Dublin Harbour, St Stephen's Green, and St Patrick's. Under the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918, the city was allocated seven seats: in addition to the four existing constituencies, the new divisions were Clontarf, St James's and St Michan's. ^[4]

Sinn Féin used the 1918 general election to elect members of Dáil Éireann, inviting all those elected in Ireland to sit as a Teachta Dála (known in English as a Deputy) in the Dáil rather than at Westminster, although only the Sinn Féin members attended. Thomas Kelly sat as a member of the First Dáil.

Under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the area was combined with the St Patrick's Division to form Dublin South, a 4-seat constituency for the Southern Ireland House of Commons and a single constituency at Westminster. ^[5] At the 1921 election for the Southern Ireland House of Commons, the four seats were won uncontested by Sinn Féin, who treated it as part of the election to the Second Dáil. Thomas Kelly was one of the four TDs for Dublin South.

Under s. 1(4) of the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922, no writ was to be issued "for a constituency in Ireland other than a constituency in Northern Ireland". ^[6] Therefore, no vote was held in Dublin South at the 1922 United Kingdom general election on 15 November 1922, shortly before the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom on 6 December 1922.

Members of Parliament

From	To	Member [7]	Party
1885	1888	Edmund Dwyer Gray		Irish Parliamentary
1888	1892	Thomas Alexander Dickson		Liberal
1892	1898	William Kenny		Liberal Unionist
1898	1900	James Henry Mussen Campbell		Irish Unionist
1900 [8] [9] [10]	1904	James McCann		Irish Parliamentary
1904 [11]	1910	Laurence Ambrose Waldron		Irish Parliamentary
1910	1918	Patrick Joseph Brady		Irish Parliamentary
1918	1922	Thomas Kelly		Sinn Féin

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

1918 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^{[12] [13]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Thomas Kelly	8,461	59.9	New
	Irish Parliamentary	Patrick Joseph Brady	2,902	20.6	35.9
	Irish Unionist	Henry Hanna	2,755	19.5	24.0
Majority			5,559	39.3	N/A
Turnout			14,118	71.5	8.9
Registered electors			19,759
	Sinn Féin gain from Irish Parliamentary		Swing	N/A

December 1910 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	P. J. Brady	3,594	56.5	1.6
	Irish Unionist	Reginald Herbert	2,765	43.5	1.6
Majority			829	13.0	3.2
Turnout			6,359	80.4	4.4
Registered electors			7,909
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing	1.6

January 1910 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	P. J. Brady	3,683	54.9	6.2
	Irish Unionist	Henry Daniel Connor	3,021	45.1	6.2
Majority			662	9.8	12.4
Turnout			6,704	84.8	9.5
Registered electors			7,909
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing	6.2

Elections in the 1900s

1906 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	Laurence Ambrose Waldron	4,055	61.1	6.7
	Irish Unionist	William Ireland	2,581	38.9	6.7
Majority			1,474	22.2	13.4
Turnout			6,636	75.3	3.0
Registered electors			8,816
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing	6.7

1904 Dublin St Stephen's Green by-election ^{[14] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	Laurence Ambrose Waldron	3,457	55.1	0.7
	Irish Unionist	Charles Louis Matheson	2,821	44.9	0.7
Majority			636	10.2	1.4
Turnout			6,278	78.3	6.0
Registered electors			8,018
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing	0.7

Death of McCann

1900 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^{[14] [8] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	James McCann	3,429	54.4	7.7
	Irish Unionist	James Campbell	2,873	45.6	7.7
Majority			556	8.8	N/A
Turnout			6,302	72.3	6.6
Registered electors			8,714
	Irish Parliamentary gain from Liberal Unionist		Swing	7.7

Elections in the 1890s

1898 Dublin St Stephen's Green by-election ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James Campbell	3,525	51.0	2.3
	Irish National League	George Plunkett	3,387	49.0	2.3
Majority			138	2.0	N/A
Turnout			6,912	79.1	0.2
Registered electors			8,735
	Irish Unionist gain from Liberal Unionist		Swing	2.3

Kenny appointed a Judge of the High Court

1895 Dublin St Stephen's Green by-election ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	William Kenny	3,325	53.5	0.2
	Irish National League	Pierce Mahoney	2,893	46.5	0.2
Majority			432	7.0	0.4
Turnout			6,218	78.9
Registered electors			8,697
	Liberal Unionist hold		Swing	0.2

Kenny appointed Solicitor-General

1895 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	William Kenny	3,661	53.3	8.0
	Irish National League	George Plunkett	3,205	46.7	1.6
Majority			456	6.6	6.4
Turnout			6,866	78.9	9.0
Registered electors			8,697
	Liberal Unionist hold		Swing	3.2

1892 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	William Kenny	2,893	45.3	11.4
	Irish National League	Joseph Meade	2,878	45.1	New
	Irish National Federation	William Lovell Pearson	615	9.6	New
Majority			15	0.2	N/A
Turnout			6,386	87.9	13.5
Registered electors			7,261
	Liberal Unionist gain from Irish Parliamentary		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1880s

1888 Dublin St Stephen's Green by-election ^[15]
Registered electors 10,530 ^[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Alexander Dickson	4,819	62.2	New
	Irish Conservative	Robert Sexton	2,932	37.8	3.9
Majority			1,887	24.4	N/A
Turnout			7,751	73.6	0.8
Registered electors			10,530
	Liberal gain from Irish Parliamentary		Swing	N/A

Death of Gray

1886 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^[17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	Edmund Dwyer Gray	5,008	66.1	4.8
	Liberal Unionist	Sir Edward Sullivan, 2nd Baronet	2,565	33.9	4.8
Majority			2,443	32.2	9.6
Turnout			7,573	74.4	10.2
Registered electors			10,184
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing	4.8

1885 general election: Dublin St Stephen's Green ^[18]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	Edmund Dwyer Gray	5,277	61.3
	Irish Conservative	Edward Guinness	3,334	38.7
Majority			1,943	22.6
Turnout			8,611	84.6
Registered electors			10,184
	Irish Parliamentary win (new seat)

Notes, citations and sources

Citations

1. "Report of the Boundary Commission (Ireland): Map". Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland. DIPPAM: Documenting Ireland, Parliament, People and Migration. p. 18. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
2. "Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23)". Archive.org. Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales. p. 143. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
3. "Report of the Boundary Commission (Ireland)". Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland. DIPPAM: Documenting Ireland, Parliament, People and Migration. p. 35. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
4. "Redistribution of seats (Ireland) Act, 1918" . Retrieved 1 October 2022.
5. "Government of Ireland Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 67): Fifth Schedule". legislation.gov.uk . The National Archives . Retrieved 27 May 2022.
6. "Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 (12 & 13 Geo. 5, c. 4)". Historical Documents. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012.
7. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 1)
8. Campbell was defeated 'very largely because of the actions of die-hard unionists' - see D.George Boyce, Alan O'Day (editors) 'Defenders of the Union: A Survey of British and Irish Unionism Since 1801', page 123 Archived 15 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine
9. 'Unionist abstentionism helped to unseat Campbell' - see Alvin Jackson, 'Ireland 1798-1998: War, Peace and Beyond',page 226 Archived 15 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine
10. 'He lost the seat partly because middle-class Protestants, like their Catholic counterparts, were involved in a widespread flight to the suburbs, where the air was cleaner and the rates lower.' - Pádraig Yeates, 'A City in Wartime – Dublin 1914–1918: The Easter Rising 1916', Archived 15 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine
11. '[This] by-election ... revealed how deep the divisions in unionist ranks ran, but it was also a harbinger of the future. Senior figures within the Unionist Party were not inclined to contest the seat, especially as the new nationalist-backed ‘independent’ candidate, Laurence Waldron, was a stockbroker and former unionist who would be a moderating influence in the House of Commons. Several leading business figures, including Sir William Goulding, chairman of the Great Southern and Western Railway, and Lord Iveagh, head of the Guinness dynasty, resigned from the Unionist Representative Association in protest at a grass-roots revolt that led to the association supporting the candidacy of Norris Godard, a Crown solicitor. It was a foolish nomination, as Godard could stand only by relinquishing his lucrative government post, which he declined to do. The former Unionist MP for the constituency, James Campbell KC, was available to stand and had the added advantage of being wealthy enough to finance his own campaign, but the Unionist Representative Association would not have him. There followed an unseemly row about the rival candidacies of another lawyer, C. L. Matheson, and Michael McCarthy, a colourful renegade nationalist from Cork who was popular with militant unionists because of his books denouncing the evils of Catholicism. Matheson secured the nomination but, as expected, was defeated by Waldron.' - Pádraig Yeates, 'A City in Wartime – Dublin 1914–1918: The Easter Rising 1916', Archived 15 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine In fact, Campbell had been elected as one of the MPs for Dublin University in 1903. McCarthy's article is at Michael McCarthy (Irish lawyer)
12. "The Irish General Election of 1918". Ark.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 24 August 2006. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
13. General Election: 14 December 1918 – Dublin St Stephen's Archived 24 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine , ElectionsIreland.org
14. Walker, B. M. Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922. Royal Irish Academy. p. 346.
15. The Constitutional Year Book, 1904, published by Conservative Central Office, page 194 (218 in web page)
16. Walker, Brian Mercer (1978). Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. p. 142. ISBN   0-901714-12-7.
17. Walker, B. M. Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922. Royal Irish Academy. p. 138.
18. Walker, B. M. Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922. Royal Irish Academy. p. 132.

Sources

• Walker, Brian M., ed. (1978). Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. pp. 345–346, 388. ISBN   0901714127.
• Boundary Commission (Ireland) established in 1917 to redistribute seats in the House of Commons under the terms of the Representation of the People Bill, 1917 (1917). "Schedule 10 : Parliamentary borough of Dublin" (PDF). Report. Vol. CSO/RP/1917/29520/36. National Archives of Ireland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2018.

External links

• Dáil Éireann Members Database Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas
• Dublin Historic Maps: Parliamentary & Dail Constituencies 1780–1969 (a work in progress)