1919 Sligo Corporation election

October 2025 June 2019 1919 Sligo Corporation election United Kingdom Parliamentary no yes 1914 Sligo Corporation election 1914 1925 Sligo Corporation election 1925 All 24 seats on Sligo Corporation 13 15 January 1919 Sligo Ratepayers Association 8 Sinn Féin 7 Irish Labour Party 4 1919 Sligo Corporation election results map (most voted party by electoral area).svg 300px Map showing results by electoral area Council control Council control after election No overall control An election for all 24 members of Sligo Corporation took place on 15 January 1919, using the single transferable vote (STV). The use of STV in Sligo in 1919 was the first use of a proportional representation electoral system to elect city councillors in the United Kingdom. For that reason, it was observed with interest across the United Kingdom, and it was commented on later as far away as western Canada.Bowman "How Proportional Representation works", Grain Growers Guide (Canada), Dec. 6, 1919, p. 7, 10, 11"The first municipal P.R. elections in the United Kingdom" (Proportional Representation Society of Canada), https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.99422/1 accessed December 6, 2025 At that time, Urban districts in Ireland held annual elections on 15 January each year, and under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, plurality voting was used to replace a cohort of one-third or one-quarter of each city's councillors.https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1898/act/37/section/94/enacted/en/html Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, Section 94 (9)–(10) Irish Statute Book 18 March 2015 Due to the First World War, elections in the years between 1915 and 1919 were suspended.Annual report for the year ended 31st March, 1919 Local Government Board for Ireland Local Government Board for Ireland 1920 Command papers Cmd.578 https://archive.org/details/op1256833-1001/page/n3/mode/2up Sligo Corporation Act 1918 Act Parliament of the United Kingdom An Act to amend the provisions for the local management of the borough of Silgo and to extend the rating powers of the Corporation of the borough and to extend the power of the Corporation to borrow and re-borrow moneys and to provide for the payment by the Corporation of the expenses incurred in meeting the demands of the county council of the county of Sligo and to confer on the Local Government Board for Ireland further powers of control in regard to the performance of their respective duties by the Corporation and the officers thereof and to amend the provisions relating to the election and duration in office of the aldermen and councillors of the borough and for other purposes. 1918 8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. xxiii 30 July 1918 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Geo5/8-9/23/pdfs/ukla_19180023_en.pdf yes The Sligo election was held under the Sligo Corporation Act 1918,8 & 9 Geo. 5. ch. xxiii, Sligo Corporation Act 1918 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/61-62/37/pdfs/ukpga_18980037_en.pdf legislation.gov.uk The National ArchivesThe 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 https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.29822919?seq=529 19 March 2015 8 & 9 Geo.V c.xxiii(P) Sligo Corporation Act, 1918 a local 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.Local Government Board for Ireland (1920) p.ix The election under the 1918 Act was exempt from the general postponement.Local Government Board for Ireland (1920), pp. ix–x Sligo was divided into three wards, each electing eight councillors. The SRA ran 18 candidates (11 Protestant unionists and 7 Catholic nationalists), six in each ward, and won 8 seats (electing five Protestants and three Catholics). It had support from four elected Independent councillors, for a combined total of 12 seats. Sinn Féin, Labour, and a pro-Sinn Féin Independent Nationalist councillor won a majority, with a combined 13-seat total.http://www.independent.ie/regionals/sligochampion/localnotes/sligo-protestants-and-the-borough-election-of-january-1919-27564871.html Sligo Protestants and the Borough Election of January 1919 Padraig Deignan 10 June 2009 Sligo Champion Irish Independenthttps://sligolibrary.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/22-PR-19.pdf Proportional representation Sligo County Library 19 March 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150924102621/http://www.sligolibrary.ie/sligolibrarynew/media/PR%20(19).pdf 2015-09-24 live Bowman "How Proportional Representation works", Grain Growers Guide (Canada), Dec. 6, 1919, p. 7 Sligo's use of STV was the second use of STV in an election in Ireland. The first occasion was to fill the Dublin University seats in 1918. Sligo's election was seen as a success. The editor of the Sligo Champion newspaper wrote "It was really a model election. Throughout the whole process of counting and transferring, not one single mistake occurred. This is of course a tribute to the efficiency of the staff as well as to the manner in which every stage of the count automatically checks itself. It was very plain, very simple, and it means more for the elector than he was ever able to boast of before... It is a big improvement, and it is absolutely fair."Bowman "How Proportional Representation works", Grain Growers Guide (Canada), Dec. 6, 1919, p. 7"The first municipal P.R. elections in the United Kingdom" (Proportional Representation Society of Canada), p. 3. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.99422/1 accessed December 6, 2025 The election was seen as a vindication of STV. Subsequently, with the passage of the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919, STV was adopted for all Irish local authorities. This came into effect for the 1920 local elections.Deignan Patrick May–June 2009 PR & the Sligo borough election of 1919 17 3 History Ireland http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/pr-the-sligo-borough-election-of-1919/ 18 March 2015 The 1918 Act envisaged triennial elections in Sligo,Sligo Corporation Act 1918, §10(1) as the 1919 Act did throughout Ireland. In the event, the Irish War of Independence, Irish Civil War, and their aftermaths meant the next local elections were not held until 1925.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 66–81 10.33178/ijpp.1.1.5 2009-1117 http://publish.ucc.ie/ijpp/2009/01/corcoran/05/en 19 March 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20131029201945/http://publish.ucc.ie/ijpp/2009/01/corcoran/05/en 29 October 2013 dead free Results by party +Results by partyhttp://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/others-project/old-local-election-results/ Irish Election Literature 28 October 2011 18 March 2015 Sligo Corporation Local Election Results 1919 to 2009 Old Local Election Results Party Candidates Seats ± 1st pref First preference votes FPv% First preference votes percentage ±% Sligo Ratepayers Association18882337.27 Sinn Féin13767430.53 Labour Party (Ireland)12441418.75 Independent5530013.59Total48242,208100.00— (Candidate Hande is identified here as an Independent. In some accounts he is recorded as "Labour".)Bowman, "How P.R. Works", Grain Growers Guide, Dec. 9, 1919, p. 7 Results by Ward East Ward East Ward: 8 seatshttps://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000432/19190125/139/0008 The Sligo Champion 25 January 1919 8 Tables of Results of the Sligo Municipal Elections British Newspaper Archive 14 Sinn Féin Dudley M. Hanley 160 Sinn Féin Luke Gilligan 87 Sinn Féin Thomas H. Fitzpatrick 73 94 Independent politician Patrick White 71 83 Labour Party (Ireland) Michael Nevin 56 64 65 67 67 69 70 70 75 93 Labour Party (Ireland) 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 Party (Ireland) 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 Party (Ireland) 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 Party (Ireland) Bart O'Riordan 4 4 4 4 14 946 726 (%) 81 North Ward North Ward: 8 seats 11 Independent politician John Jinks 123 Independent politician 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 politician 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 Party (Ireland) Peter Heraghty 22 31 32 32 32 33 38 40 40 41 54 Labour Party (Ireland) James Kelly 19 26 29 29 29 30 30 30 32 34 Labour Party (Ireland) 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 11 769 542 (70.48%) 61 West Ward West Ward: 8 seats 11 Sligo Ratepayers Association Henry Campbell-Perry 169 Labour Party (Ireland) 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 politician 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 Party (Ireland) John Lambert 18 19 19 23 32 Labour Party (Ireland) Thomas D. Howley 18 18 18 20 Labour Party (Ireland) Andrew Thompson 15 15 15 11 1,344 940 (69.94%) 105 References Category:1919 Irish local elections Corporation Election, 1919