1925 Local Elections To Kildare County Council
One hundred years ago in June 1925, the first local elections to Kildare County Council in an independent Ireland took place. These local elections had been postponed nationally in 1923 and 1924 due to ongoing tensions around the Civil War. The passage of the 1925 Local Government Act by Dáil Éireann (that also abolished the rural district councils including those in Athy, Celbridge and Naas that had also been in operation since 1899) also facilitated the holding of local elections across the State in late June 1925.
The local election campaign did not excite much interest amongst politicians or the general public alike. The pro-Treaty Government Party Cumann na nGaedheal did not even contest the elections with the President of the Dáil W.T. Cosgrave declaring that ‘the business of local government in a self-governing State should be discharged without advertence to political or party considerations’. Similarly, the anti-Treaty republicans only half-heartedly campaigned.
In Kildare, this cleared the way to a contest between trade union interests (represented by Labour) and farmers (represented by the Farmers and Ratepayers group) who had dominated Kildare County Council in the previous years. The election was held on Tuesday 23rd June 1925, with twenty-nine seats to be filled on Kildare County Council from Athy, Clane, Kildare, Naas and Newbridge electoral areas. Sixty-three candidates stood for election. Neither of the two female candidates who contested were elected. The count itself took place the following morning in the Agricultural Chamber in Basin Street, Naas & in the boardroom of the County Hospital under the supervision of returning officers Mr. W.E. Coffey and Mr. D.J. Purcell. The results were known by that afternoon, helped by very few spoilt votes.
The twenty-nine seats on Kildare County Council went to 14 representatives of the Farmers and Ratepayers’ Group, 13 to Labour, 1 Republican and 1 Independent. Somewhat surprisingly, Republican leader Thomas Harris (later a TD) and Labour trade unionist Christopher Supple (who had led the 1923 farm labourers strike in South Kildare) both lost their seats.
Naas based independent Councilllor Mr Michael Fitzsimons was elected as Chair of Kildare County Council at the first meeting of the new Council.
The members elected were as follows:
Athy: Thomas Corcoran (Labour), William James Fennell (Farmers), James Foley (Labour), John Nassau Greene (Farmers), George Henderson (Farmers)
Clane: W.E.H. Fawcett (Farmers), Richard McCann (Labour), Andrew McNally (Farmers), Patrick Phelan (Farmers), David Weld (Labour)
Kildare: Joseph Behan (Republican), James Bergin (Farmers), James Cregan (Labour), Patrick Joseph Dunne (Labour), Nicholas Hanaghan (Farmers), Michale Lennox (Farmers), Thomas J. Murphy (Farmers), E. O’Reilly (Labour)
Naas: Bertram Hugh Barton (Farmers), Mark Carroll (Labour), Edward A. Coonan (Farmers), Michael Fitzsimons (Independent), William Soults (Labour), Nicholas Travers (Labour)
Newbridge: Hugh Colohan T.D. (Labour), John Conlan T.D. (Farmers), Robert Gannon (Farmers), Peter Keenan (Labour), Michael Smyth (Labour).
The 1925 Local Elections were an important development in the evolution of local democracy in the fledging new State.
Further Reading:
Donnelly, Brian. ‘Local Government in Kildare, 1920-1970’ in Kildare History and Society: Interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish County (Geography Publications, 2006).
Nelson, Thomas. Through Peace and War Kildare County Council in the years of revolution 1899-1926 (Killeaney Press, 2015)
Quinlivan, Aodh. Democracy on Your Doorstep. 125 Years of Local Elections in Ireland, 1899-2024.
