Local Elections for City and Town councils

Introduction from Chronology

Local elections for city and town councils. Out of the 206 councils elected through-out Ireland, 172 had Republican majorities.

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British government had brought in proportional representation (for Ireland only) in the hope it would dilute support for Sinn Féin and boost support for other parties – it did to some extent (compared to the December 1918 election) as shown by the following overall results:  There were some 1,816 seats up for election - Sinn Féin won 550 seats, Labour 394, Unionists 355, Nationalists 238, Independents 161 and municipal reformers 108.  First preference vote was closer; Sinn Féin – 87,311; Unionists – 85,932; Nationalists – 47,102; Labour – 57,623 and Independents – 44,273.  However, because Labour was mostly in partnership with Sinn Féin, they came to dominate most councils and corporations.  Nine out of eleven corporations were in SF/Labour hands as were 62 out of 99 urban councils.

Also, Sinn Féin had a more resounding victory in the local elections held for county councils in June 1920 (when the electorate was three times larger) – see Jun-12-20/1. 

In the north of Ireland, while the Unionists retained control of 24 townships (while the Nationalists and Sinn Féin won control of 21 townships), Sinn Féin wins control of 10 out of 12 cities (only Derry City – where they held power with the nationalists - and Belfast held by the Unionists) not in their hands.   

For the first time, nationalists hold power in Derry City – 21 seats (made up 11 Nationalist & 10 Sinn Féin) as opposed to 19 for the unionists.  Hugh C. O’Doherty is elected mayor of Londonderry Corporation.  (The first Catholic to be mayor of Derry since 1688.)  In Belfast, the unionists won 37 of the 60 seats, the Nationalist and Sinn Féin won five seats each and 12 or 13 seats were won by Labour. 

In Ulster, the Unionists got 52.6%, Labour got 20.9%, Nationalists got 14.9% and Sinn Féin got 8.9%.  Mitchell notes that “if Unionism was shown not to be monolithic in the six counties of Ulster, the Sinn Féin poll indicated that over a two-year period the party had failed to make any substantial progress there” (Mitchell (1995), pg 124).   

Phoenix says that the lack of unity among nationalists and Sinn Féin in Ulster was to detract from the evolution of an effective policy against partition in the crucial months ahead. 

Example of a Local Election Result

Castlebar UDC – 4 Sinn Féin; 1 Independent Sinn Féin; 3 Labour; 2 Independents and 1 Unionist

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