1919 Sligo Corporation election

An election for all 24 members of Sligo Corporation took place on 15 January 1919, using the single transferable vote (STV). Urban districts in Ireland held annual elections on 15 January each year under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, using plurality voting to replace a cohort of one-third or one-quarter of their councillors.[1] Those elections for 1915–19 were postponed while the First World War was still in progress.[2]

1919 Sligo Corporation election

15 January 1919
All 24 seats to Sligo Corporation 13 seats needed for a majority
Party Sligo Ratepayers Association Sinn Féin Irish Labour Seats won 8 7 4
Council control after election No overall control

The Sligo election was held under the Sligo Corporation Act of 1918, a private act passed in the UK Parliament under the sponsorship of the Sligo Ratepayers Association (SRA), an alliance of Protestants and businessmen which opposed the actions of the outgoing corporation.[3][4] The election under the 1918 act was exempt from the general postponement.[5]

In the 1919 election, the SRA ran a slate of 18 candidates (11 Protestant and 7 Catholic) and won 8 seats; Sinn Féin, Labour, and an Independent Nationalist had a majority of 13 seats between them.[6] It was the second STV election ever in Ireland; the first was in the University of Dublin in the November 1918 Westminster election. The outcome was seen as a vindication of STV, which was adopted for all Irish local authorities by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919, in time for the 1920 local elections.[3] The 1918 act envisaged triennial elections in Sligo,[7] as the 1919 act did throughout Ireland. In the event, the Irish War of Independence, Irish Civil War, and aftermath meant the next local elections were postponed until 1925.[8]

Results by party

Results by party[9]

Party		Seats	±	First Pref. votes	FPv%	±%
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	8		823	37.27
	Sinn Féin	7		674	30.53
	Labour	4		414	18.75
	Other	5		300	13.59
Totals		24		2,208	100%	—

Results by Ward

East Ward

East Ward - 8 seats[9][10]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
	Sinn Féin	Dudley M. Hanley		160
	Sinn Féin	Luke Gilligan		87
	Sinn Féin	Thomas H. Fitzpatrick		73	94
	Independent	Patrick White		71	83
	Labour	Michael Nevin		56	64	65	67	67	69	70	70	75	93
	Labour	James Gray		53	56	57	58	58	60	60	62	65	72	74	74	75	76
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Young Warren		51	52	53	53	55	55	58	65	65	65	66	66	98
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	James J. Nelson		41	42	42	42	42	42	43	48	49	50	50	50
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Bernard McDonagh		35	39	41	42	43	44	46	48	49	50	50	51	63	79
	Labour	William J. Reilly		25	28	30	31	32	32	32	32	36
	Sinn Féin	Henry Monson		23	42	46	47	47	49	51	52	56	61	67	68	70	70
	Labour	Peter Costello		18	20	21	21	21	21	21
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Hugh Sinclair		16	18	18	18	18	18
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	William Conmy		8	10	10	10	10	10
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Thomas Mahon		5	6	7	7	7
	Labour	Bart O'Riordan		4	4	4	4
Electorate: 946   Valid: 726 (%)   Quota: 81   Turnout:

North Ward

North Ward - 8 seats[9][10]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	Independent	John Jinks		123
	Independent	John Lynch		72
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Arthur Jackson		55	59	60	62
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Henry Wood-Martin		53	55	55	56	57	59	60	60	61	61	61
	Sinn Féin	Frank Nally		43	49	50	50	50	53	53	55	55	58	62
	Independent	James Devins		32	46	47	47	47	49	49	54	54	55	57
	Sinn Féin	James Costello		31	35	37	40	40	40	41	43	43	48	52
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	James Campbell		30	35	35	36	36	37	39	39	39	41	44
	Labour	Peter Heraghty		22	31	32	32	32	33	38	40	40	41	54
	Labour	James Kelly		19	26	29	29	29	30	30	30	32	34
	Labour	Pat Derrig		15	15	15	15	15	15	15	16
	Sinn Féin	John Feeney		12	14	14	14	14	14	14
	Sinn Féin	William J. Kelly		12	14	16	16	16	16	18	18	19
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Thomas Begley		9	11	11	11	11	12
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Thomas Flanagan		7	10	10	11	11
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	John Noone		7	9	9
Electorate: 769   Valid: 542 (70.48%)   Quota: 61   Turnout:

West Ward

West Ward - 8 seats[9][10]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Henry Campbell-Perry		169
	Labour	Henry Depew		94	96	96	100	100	104	106
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	James Connolly		91	95	95	95	96	99	106
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Percy Campbell Kerr		82	112
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	Edward J. Tighe		79	91	96	97	97	104	110
	Independent	William Hande		56	59	59	60	61	64	64	64	69	75	94
	Sinn Féin	John Hughes		56	57	57	57	58	61	62	63	65	73
	Sinn Féin	William J. Feeney		55	56	56	56	59	61	65	65	71	86	90
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	James Hamilton		51	53	54	56	56	58	71	75	77	80	89
	Sinn Féin	Patrick J. Flanagan		44	44	44	44	46	46	47	47	61	78	107
	Sinn Féin	Jordan Roche		40	44	44	44	45	46	48	48	59
	Sinn Féin	Samuel Tarrant		38	39	39	40	41	43	44	44
	Sligo Ratepayers Association	John Finan		34	37	38	38	39	40
	Labour	John Lambert		18	19	19	23	32
	Labour	Thomas D. Howley		18	18	18	20
	Labour	Andrew Thompson		15	15	15
Electorate: 1,344   Valid: 940 (69.94%)   Quota: 105   Turnout:

Sources

• Local Government Board for Ireland (1920). Annual report for the year ended 31st March, 1919. Command papers. Cmd.578.
• "8 & 9 Geo.V c.xxiii(P) Sligo Corporation Act, 1918" (PDF). The local and private acts passed in the eighth and ninth years of the reign of His Majesty King George the fifth : being the eighth session of the thirtieth parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland : with an index. Eyre & Spottiswoode for William Richard Codling. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
• "Proportional representation" (PDF). Sligo County Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.

References

1. "Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, Section 94 (9)–(10)". Irish Statute Book. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
2. Local Government Board for Ireland (1920) p.ii
3. Deignan, Patrick (May–June 2009). "PR & the Sligo borough election of 1919". History Ireland. 17 (3). Retrieved 18 March 2015.
4. Local Government Board for Ireland (1920) p.ix
5. Local Government Board for Ireland (1920) p.ix–x
6. Padraig Deignan (10 June 2009). "Sligo Protestants and the Borough Election of January 1919". The Sligo Champion.
7. Sligo Corporation Act 1918, §10(1)
8. Corcoran, Donal (December 2009). "Public Policy in an emerging state: The Irish Free State 1922-25". Irish Journal of Public Policy. University College Cork. 1 (1). ISSN 2009-1117. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
9. "Old Local Election Results". Irish Election Literature. 28 October 2011. p. Sligo Corporation Local Election Results 1919 to 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
10. Sligo Champion - Saturday 25 January 1919, pg.8, Tables of Results of the Sligo Municipal Elections