1920 Irish local elections

Background

In the 1918 general elections the newly reformed Sinn Féin party had secured a large majority of Irish seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Many of the seats won by Sinn Féin were uncontested and thus were secured by acclamation. Where the seats were contested, the elections used the first-past-the-post voting system. Those two reasons explain how the Sinn Féin took a majority of seats in the chamber even though in the districts where the seat was contested the party received less than half the vote. Sinn Féin's electoral success was a propaganda coup for the party, so the British Government introduced the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919, which allowed for municipal elections by proportional representation in all of Ireland for the first time, by the system of the single transferable vote in multi-member districts. The Bill's second reading debate and vote were on 24 March. The government hoped that the new system would reveal less-than-monolithic support for Sinn Féin, and it was first tested in the 1920 local elections.

Some Sinn Féin members including Arthur Griffith had also helped to form the Proportional Representation Society of Ireland in the different circumstances of 1911. By 1920 the party was in a far stronger electoral position, and had no reason to oppose proportional representation, and it treated these elections as internal Irish elections for local authorities that were expected to swear allegiance to the new Irish Republic.

STV, the electoral system introduced by the 1919 Act, is still used today in elections in the Republic of Ireland and most elections in Northern Ireland.

January 1920

The 1919 act mandated elections for all urban councils except Sligo Corporation, which had been reconstituted and elected in 1919. The cumulative first preference votes in the 1920 urban elections were:

Excluding the more unionist province of Ulster, the urban results were:

The 15 January elections saw Sinn Féin, Labour, and other nationalists winning control of 172 of Ireland's 206 borough and urban district councils. The subsequent mayoral elections on 30 January saw a Unionist elected for Belfast, a Nationalist in Derry, Labour in Wexford, and Sinn Féin in eight boroughs.

In Westport, only 4 candidates were nominated for the 18 seats on the urban district council, and only 2 of those accepted office. Since 5 councillors was a quorum, Mayo County Council mandated a special election for 15 March, but only one extra candidate was nominated.

June 1920

The rural elections showed a much greater level of support for Sinn Féin in its core support area. It took control of 338 out of 393 local government bodies, county councils, boards of guardians and rural district councils across the whole island. The county and rural district elections saw virtually no contests outside of Ulster.

Sinn Féin's success allowed them to take control of virtually every county council and rural district council outside of Ulster. Sinn Féin success in 12 June rural and county elections extended even to Ulster, with the party winning control of 36 of Ulsters 55 rural districts.

Results

Detailed results by council type

County councils

County Borough councils

Urban district councils

References

Sources

Citations

References

1. (19 December 2000). "The Irish elections of 1918".
2. Sinnott, Richard. (1995). "Irish voters decide: Voting behaviour in elections and referendums since 1918". Manchester University Press.
3. (24 March 1919). "''Hansard'' report of the debate on the Bill's second reading, March 1919". [[Hansard.
4. Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919 §9; Sligo Corporation Act 1918
5. Candidates from the [[Ulster Unionist Party]] and the smaller [[Irish Unionist Alliance]]
6. Including candidates from parties such as the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]]
7. Martin, H. "Ireland in insurrection" (O'Connor, London 1921), pp. 212–218
8. Cmd.1432 p.x
9. Cmd. 1432 p.xi
10. Philpin, Charles H. E.. (2002). "Nationalism and Popular Protest in Ireland". Cambridge University Press.
11. (2001). "The Green and the Red: Revolutionary Republicanism and Socialism in Irish History, 1848-1923". iUniverse.
12. (2014). "Longman Handbook of Modern Irish History Since 1800". Routledge.
13. Laffan, Michael. (1999). "The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916–1923". Cambridge University Press.
14. (2 October 2020). "Democracy and Change - The 1920 Local Elections in Ireland".