July Document of the Month

(NAI, CSO/RP/1917/29520/36)

The July Document of the Month is the Report of the Boundary Commission (Ireland) established in 1917 to redistribute seats in the House of Commons under the terms of the Representation of the People Bill, 1917. The report, which was issued on 27 November 1917, used statistical data including the published reports of the 1911 Census, the reports of the Registrar General and ‘maps showing the various areas into which Ireland is divided for parliamentary and local government purposes’.

The Commission members were bound by two criteria: the number of Irish members of parliament was to remain at 101 and any redistribution was not to undermine the existing system of territorial representation by counties and boroughs. By applying the criteria strictly, this would mean an average of 43,000 people per MP, but it was deemed necessary by the Commission members to reduce this to 30,000 per MP in certain areas to ensure counties with a large geographical spread and smaller population retained adequate representation. They also considered practical implications such as the intersection of boundaries of electoral divisions, which could complicate matters for registration authorities. The report recommended the boroughs of Galway, Kilkenny, Newry and Waterford were to lose their separate representation and King’s County (Offaly), Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Queen’s County (Laois) and Westmeath were all to return one MP instead of two. The boroughs of Dublin and Belfast were to gain representation, while counties Down and Dublin were also to gain seats.

The Report includes colour maps of counties and boroughs that were divided as part of the work of the Commission, including counties Down, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Tyrone, Waterford and the boroughs of Dublin and Belfast.

The Representation of the People Bill was enacted in 1918. This legislation removed the property qualification for men, enabling working class men to vote for the first time. It also introduced suffrage for women over 30 who met a number of qualifications. The Act tripled the voting population and introduced modern concepts such as holding elections on a single day across all constituencies. The 1918 election, the first held under the new regime, resulted in a major victory in Ireland for Sinn Féin, including the election of Countess Markievicz as the first female MP. Due to the Sinn Féin policy of abstention, however, Countess Markievicz never took up her seat in the House of Commons and became a member of the First Dáil.

To view the report see NAI, CSO/RP/1917/29520.