Irish local elections, 1920

Irish local elections 1920

January & June, 1920

All 1806 councillors across Ireland   First party Second party Third party   Leader Éamon de Valera Thomas Johnson Edward Carson Party Sinn Féin Labour Party Irish Unionist Councillors 550 394 355

The 1920 Irish local elections were held in January & June 1920 for the various county & district councils of Ireland. The elections provide an interesting barometer of opinion in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence (1919–21), and were the last elections to be held on an all-Irish basis, with the Government of Ireland Act 1920 being passed at the end of the year, legislating for the partition of Ireland. The next local elections in Ireland were held in Northern Ireland in 1924, with the Irish Free State holding local elections in 1925.

The 1920 Irish local elections were held in two stages:

• Urban area local elections in January 1920
• Rural areas in June 1920

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 with slightly less than 50% of the vote because of the "first past the post" electoral system. This provided a propaganda coup for Sinn Féin, and so the British Government introduced the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919, which allowed for parliamentary elections by proportional representation in all of Ireland for the first time, by the system of the single transferable vote for multi-member electoral areas. 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.^[1][2]

The electoral method introduced by the 1919 Act is still used in elections in the Republic of Ireland and most elections in Northern Ireland today.

January 1920

The urban borough elections result for first preference votes were:

Excluding the more unionist province of Ulster, the urban results were:^[6]

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 Londonderry, Labour in Wexford, and Sinn Féin in eight boroughs.^[7]

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. It should be noted however that the county and rural district elections saw virtually no contests outside of Ulster.^[9]

Sinn Féin's success allowed them to seize control of virtually every county council and rural district council outside of Ulster.^[10] Sinn Féin success in the 12 June rural and county elections extended even to Ulster, with the party winning control of 36 of Ulsters 55 rural districts.^[7]

Results

Map of Ireland's various county, urban, and rural district councils.

Detailed results by council type

County councils

District Councils

References

(1919 ←) United Kingdom local elections, 1920 (→ 1921)
England	Liverpool
Administrative county councils (Ireland)	Antrim Armagh Carlow Cavan Clare Cork Donegal Down Dublin Fermanagh Fingal Galway Galway Kerry Kildare Kilkenny Laois Leitrim Limerick Londonderry Longford Louth Mayo Meath Monaghan Offaly Roscommon Sligo Tipperary Tyrone Waterford Westmeath Wexford Wicklow
Borough councils (Ireland)	Belfast Cork Dublin Galway Limerick Londonderry Sligo Waterford
District councils (Ireland)	Armagh UD Armagh RD Kilrush Londonderry RD Rathmines

United Kingdom elections in Ireland
General elections	1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918
Local elections	1899 1902 1905 1908 1911 1914 1920
See also: Elections in the Kingdom of Ireland Elections in Northern Ireland Elections in the Republic of Ireland

Elections and referendums in the Republic of Ireland
General elections	1918 1921 1922 1923 1927 (Jun) 1927 (Sep) 1932 1933 1937 1938 1943 1944 1948 1951 1954 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1982 (Feb) 1982 (Nov) 1987 1989 1992 1997 2002 2007 2011 2016 next By-elections
Seanad elections	1925
Presidential elections	1938 1945 1952 1959 1966 1973 1974 1976 1983 1990 1997 2004 2011
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Local elections	1920 1925 1928 1934 1942 1945 1950 1955 1960 1967 1974 1979 1985 1991 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Referendums	1937 1959 1968 1972 (May) 1972 (Dec) 1979 1983 1984 1986 1987 1992 (Jun) 1992 (Nov) 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2001 2002 (Mar) 2002 (Oct) 2004 2008 2009 2011 2012 (May) 2012 (Nov) 2013 2015
See also: Elections in the Kingdom of Ireland Elections in Ireland as part of the UK Elections in Northern Ireland