LOCAL ELECTIONS JUNE 1920

June Elections 1920
James Durney

The critical year of the independence struggle was 1920. It began with the urban elections in January and continued with offensive actions by the IRA which brought new, more ruthless, players – the Black and Tans – onto the scene.
For the first time in Ireland a new system – proportional representation with a single transferable vote – was used. The introduction of proportional representation and the single transferable vote throughout Ireland had required an Act of Parliament, the Local Government Act, 1919. Clearly, the Act was designed to undermine Sinn Féin following its resounding victory in the 1918 General Election. However, it did not work. The urban elections gave Sinn Féin control of nine of the countries eleven corporations.
In the local elections held in June Sinn Féin won control of twenty-nine out of thirty-three county councils and 172 out of 206 rural district councils. The Dáil cabinet now had the opportunity to establish a dual-power structure as all newly elected councils with a republican majority were asked to declare their allegiance to Dáil Éireann. During the local elections Kildare volunteers were engaged as guards at public meetings, and at polling stations. Of the twenty-nine members elected to Kildare County Council, twenty-eight were Sinn Féin or Labour – the Labour Party were strong supporters of the republican ideal.
At its first council meeting in Naas it was decided to pledge allegiance to Dáil Eireann and to repudiate any claim by the British government to legislate in Irish affairs. The chairman elected was Domhnall Ua Buachalla, while Michael Smyth and Thomas Harris were also elected. Comdt. Éamon Ó Modhrain, 6th Battalion, Carlow Brigade, was elected vice-chairman. Every effort was made by the British to compel the Council to recognise the British Local Government Board, including the issuing of writs. The new council deleted the resolutions condemning the Easter Rising, passed by Kildare County Council in 1916, from the minutes. The interest of the new members of the county council in the Irish language was demonstrated in the publication of the council’s proceedings in both Irish and English in the Leinster Leader. Naas Urban District Council and Newbridge Town Commission showed similar interest in the language in the autumn of that year when both bodies, dominated by Sinn Féin, proposed that the names of their towns should be changed to the Gaelic forms. The proposals were adopted at the quarterly meeting of the County Council on 22 November 1920, and henceforth the towns were to be known as Nas Ni Riogh and Droichead Nua.
The elections in January and June 1920 were the last thirty-two county all-Ireland elections. A year later the country would be partitioned.