How local elections have changed

We know local elections are near when the election posters appear on every available pole on the approach roads to town. But of course, the rural landscape cannot escape the explosion of coloured photographs which are also to be found high above the country hedgerows. Their appeal is a simple one – Vote For Me. And yet there are so many ‘Mes’ to be catered for, so many ‘Mes’ with unending promises charged to deflect our vote to one candidate or other. I went through two local election campaigns, the first almost 40 years ago. That first election campaign in 1985 saw all the candidates from the same party provided with canvass cards featuring all the party candidates. There were no individual canvass cards. It all seemed, on the surface at least, a peaceful acceptance of the value of team effort with the notion of letting the best person win. Local Government elections are to national politics what local history is to national history. One does not exist without the other. So, often it is success at the local level of democracy that compels an emerging local politician to step up onto the national stage. Here in south Kildare there are three examples of that type of transfer from the local to the national in the careers of Athy man Paddy Dooley, Castlemitchell native Joe Bermingham and Castledermot man Jack Wall. They were County Councillors and Town Councillors before being elected to the Dail. Not all Council candidates aspire to follow their footsteps and many, indeed the vast majority, are content to devote their time to the local authority. There is enormous free for all atmosphere about the present day election canvassing. The candidates have their own canvass cards, their own election posters and call to voter’s houses, sometimes alone, and sometimes with a few supporters to seek the all-important vote. This individualistic exercise can be a punishing ordeal for the candidates but perhaps even more so for potential voters who are likely to be confused by the priority lists which each of the candidates present. It is difficult to recognise on reading the many and varied priorities and promises wherein lies the job of a County Councillor. A County Councillor’s role is that he or she is part of the policy making arm of the Council sharing reserved functions with executive functions exercised by the Chief Executive Officer, who used to be called the County Manager. The County Councillors are responsible for adopting the Council’s annual budget, Bye Laws, Development plans etc. with a general overview of the Council’s affairs. The functions of the County Council have changed enormously since the time I worked in Kildare County Council many many years ago. Nowadays policy focused committees known as Strategic Policy Committees set up for various Council functions give Councillors better opportunities of developing a significant role in the policy development area. That is good because the Councillors with local knowledge are best placed to help develop policies and strategies which are best for their local communities. Having been elected by voting members of the local community, Councillors have an important role in the democratic process to represent the peoples interests and to articulate local needs and interests. They are an important part of the civic leadership of the community and as such occupy a vital representational role as regards the functions of the County Council. It is intriguing and, to somebody who understands the role of a County Councillor, mystifying to read of the priorities/promises offered by candidates in the forthcoming election. Ranging from crime prevention, mental health initiatives, improved home care facilities, supporting farmers and helping to get medical cards and social welfare benefits. One gets the impression that the job of a County Councillor is not seen by the vast majority of the candidates, including sitting Councillors, as policy making and effective provision of local services but rather as a means to help with matters unconnected with County Council business. There are many people who are functionally illiterate and who need help to meet the growing detailed and exacting requirements for State applications of any kind, but that assistance should be provided by State sponsored Citizen Advice Centres in every town. While no such service exists one appreciates why County Councillors are called upon to help, but I certainly find it questionable why so many people with the ability to make their own applications feel it necessary to call on County Councillors. To have County Councillors employed in this way is wasteful and inappropriate. For democracy to work, we need good candidates from all walks of life to give voice to the peoples needs in a Local Government system which is far too centralised. The power and authority of County Councils in this country is more restricted than any other Local Government system in Europe. Central Governments control of County Councils is exercised by the Department of Local Government through strict administrative, financial and technical control. So should we vote in the Local Government elections? Of course we should. Whatever the shortcomings in the Irish Local Government system or in the Councillors who represent us, it is vitally important that we exercise our voting rights. It is a right previous generations did not enjoy and a right which must be treasured and valued as an essential part of our democracy.

Eye on the Past 745

Free elections are the bedrock of our democracy. Later this year the country will go to the polls and using the proportional representation system of voting will elect members of a new Dáil Eireann. The PR system of voting was designed to ensure that the composition of elected bodies reflected the political affiliations of those voting and to protect minority groupings. It originated in continental Europe in the 19th century and from it was developed a British model of the system which was used in Ireland for the first time in the Local Government elections of January 1920. Ireland was then immersed in the War of Independence and was still governed from Westminster. The General Election of November 1918 had seen the defeat of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the emergence of Sinn Fein as the political leaders of the Irish people. It seems likely that the PR system of voting was brought in by the British government in an attempt to restrict the electoral success of Sinn Fein candidates and help maintain non Sinn Fein candidates within the Irish Local Government system.

The local elections in Athy were held on the 15th of January 1920 under the supervision of Joseph A. Lawler, the long time serving Town Clerk, who would die on the 4th of June 1927 after almost forty years in the position. He was a brother of Michael Lawler of the Hibernian Hotel in Leinster Street and was an important figure in local G.A.A. circles. The town of Athy, which was previously governed by Town Commissioners, was created an Urban District under the 1899 Local Government Act and the first Urban District Council was elected in April 1900. Fifteen councillors comprised the local Council and of these six members represented the East Urban Electoral area and nine members the West Electoral area of Athy.

The new PR system of voting involved a lot of preparation and training on behalf of the Council staff and the Local Government Board organised model elections in the Town Hall, Naas on 22nd November 1919 which J.A. Lawler, the Athy Town Clerk, attended. Following that Lawler organised trial elections in the Town Hall Athy on 11th September, at which he was assisted by a member of the Dublin based PR society. Further trial elections were carried out by the Town Clerk and his assistants on the 9th, 11th, 12th and 13th January in preparation for the real event scheduled for the 15th of January 1920.

On election day there were four polling stations, all located within the area of Emily Square. The Town Clerk presided at the polling station in the Urban Council offices, while David Walsh took charge of the booth in the “Leinster Offices”. This was from where the Duke of Leinster’s estate were administered locally and while I cannot definitely identify the exact location of the office within the Town Hall, it certainly was located there from the information available to me. P.P. Timmons was presiding officer in the Courthouse, while F. Gibbons had control of the polling booth in the “Magistrate’s Room” which was also in the Courthouse.

The number of electors in Athy east urban was 790, of which 555 were entitled to vote in January 1920. I cannot explain the discrepancy between the two figures. However, in the “Leinster Offices” booth the electors to vote started with No. 1, Mrs. E.R. Deane of Clonmullin up to No. 372, Mary Wall of Garden Lane. The “Council Offices” booth catered for the voters from No. 373 Mary Cooper of Emily Row to No. 543 Ann Ryan of Rathstewart. The West urban voters of which there were 899, with 646 entitled to vote, voted in the Courthouse. In the Courtroom itself voters from No. 127 Daniel Malone of Ardrew to No. 167 Mary Youell of Duke Street went to the polling booths, while No. 1672 James Fitzpatrick of Green Alley to No. 1913 Lucy Nash of the Fever Hospital voted in the “Magistrate’s Room”.

Prior to the election the local bill poster James Mulhall posted notices throughout the town advertising the names of the candidates nominated to contest the election. On the day of the election and the subsequent count which started immediately the polls closed and went on through the night, both Mulhall and George Lamon were employed to man the doors of the Town Hall and the Courthouse.

The East Urban elections saw the election of William Mahon with 135 votes where the quota was 55 votes, followed by the election of John Joseph Bailey, Patrick Dooley, James Darrigan, Daniel Twomey and Francis Jackson. The two unsuccessful candidates were Joseph C. Reynolds and John Doyle. In the West Urban area Peter Paul Doyle, the outgoing chairman of the Council, got 149 votes where the quota was 52 votes and also elected were Michael Malone, Patrick Dooley, Thomas Corcoran, Thomas Plewman, Thomas J. Whelan, Thomas O’Rourke, Joseph O’Rourke and Patrick Keogh. The only unsuccessful candidate here was William Plewman St. John.

The Patrick Dooley elected for West Athy lived in the Bleach, while his namesake in East Athy lived in Leinster Street. The two O’Rourkes were, I believe, father and son but if anyone can give me any information about them or indeed any of the other candidates mentioned in this article I would be delighted to hear from them.

Seven of the outgoing Council were re-elected and the newly elected members of the Council were Patrick Dooley of the Bleach, Thomas Corcoran of Woodstock Street, Thomas O’Rourke of William Street, Patrick Keogh of Woodstock Street, Joseph O’Rourke of William Street, Francis Jackson of Leinster Street, James Darrigan or Dargan of Butler’s Row and Daniel Toomey of Meeting Lane.

Thomas Plewman resigned from the Council on the 3rd of May 1920 following almost 50 years service as a Town Commissioner and an Urban District Councillor. Apparently his decision to resign was prompted by the Councillors’ decision to change the time of the Council meeting to 7.00 p.m. from the traditional morning meeting time. John J. Bailey resigned in February 1925 when he was replaced by P.J. Murphy of Emily Square.

The new Council elected in January 1920 under the PR system reflected the growing Irish nationalism of the time and some of its early decisions confirm this. On the 1st of March it approved the movement to have St. Patrick’s Day declared a national holiday and requested all local shopkeepers to close their premises on that day. It also accepted a request from the local branch of the Gaelic League to have the Council’s notepaper printed in Irish and later agreed to set up a committee to change local street names to their Irish equivalent (however, nothing subsequently happened in that regard). In a final act of defiance towards the British authorities the Council in August 1920 passed a resolution “acknowledging the authority of Dáil Eireann as the duly elected government of the Irish people and undertake to give effect to all decrees duly promulgated by the said Dáil Eireann”.

As 1920 came to a close the Irish War of Independence was still ongoing and its first casualty in this area was John Byrne of Gracefield, Ballylinan who died when the Luggacurran R.I.C. Barracks was torched on 20th April 1920. The Barrowhouse ambush, the Graney ambush and the other killings of the War of Independence and the Civil War were still in the future. However, the majority of the members of Athy Urban District Council elected in January 1920 reflected the changing mood of the emerging Irish nation and Local Government in this area in terms of the Council’s composition and the members allegiances had changed forever.

Kildares Loss and Local Election Outcome

“Ah! Have you given up writing the article for The Nationalist” asked the elderly female caller but before I could answer she continued “I miss it, it’s the first thing I read in the paper every week”. She wasn’t the only anxious enquirer during the two weeks of my enforced absence. How could I explain that, after nearly six years of meeting weekly deadlines, it was politicians who caused me to miss, for two weeks in succession, the Eye on Athy page of your weekly newspaper. The politicians in the lead up to local elections had booked an advertisement to replace your scribes’ weekly jottings. As some wag said to me “maybe it was to make sure you didn’t write anything about the Inner Relief Road”.

The last two weeks have witnessed many changes, some good, others not so welcome. Croke Park was a cacophony of sound mostly emanating from Offaly breasts as the footballers of Kildare went out of this year’s football championship. Even my travelling companion, whose passion for football would rouse a latter day Rip Van Winkle could not raise a ripple of dissent or a muscle in rage as our heroes crumbled under the unceasing waves of the Offaly gaels (sic).

Local hero Christy Byrne, who had a magnificent game that Sunday afternoon, could not save his team mates from the defeat which had been presaged by a couple of lack lustre games towards the end of the league season. We can now take an enforced holiday from football for the rest of the year and still bask in the glory and glamour which Kildare invested in Gaelic football during the great summer of ’98.

The disappointment of Croke Park was compensated for by the happenings in Dreamland Ballroom the previous Saturday. It was here in the hall of so many romances where we once strutted our stuff that the Town Clerk oversaw the election count for Athy Urban District Council. This year there was an important issue before the electorate and one which obviously shaped the outcome of the election. The Inner Relief Road controversy which has raged for some years past, was in danger of being side-lined a week or two before the elections. It would have been if the Council officials who have in the past shown little stomach for public debate on the issue had succeeded in having the Town Development Plan adopted before the 11th June. That it wasn’t owes much to a stroke of luck which saw proceedings in the High Court initiated by a building contractor who possibly felt that his plans were being sacrificed in the headlong rush to get the Inner Relief Road off the election agenda. The High Court decided that the outgoing Council should not consider the plan and that this task should be left to the newly-elected Council. As a result the Inner Relief Road remained an issue before and during the local elections and now has given us a new Town Council with a specific mandate on the issue.

Despite the changes brought about in the composition of the Town Council following the election, arrangements were already in hand for the out-going Council to meet three days afterwards for the purposes of adopting the Development Plan. I have never before come across a record of any out-going Council meeting after an election to make decisions committing those newly elected to a course of action they might not want. That surely was not intended by the legislators and the meeting, if it had gone ahead, would have given cause for complaint that the spirit of the law, not its substance, had been breached.

I was somewhat aghast to read in the papers of the suggestion that the Development Plan would not be considered by the new Council until June 2000. Isn’t it tragic to think that even before the newly-elected Council takes office, they are being subjected to this type of nonsense. The adoption of the Town Development Plan is for the new Town Council and one can expect that the public representatives we have elected will act quickly and responsibly in the matter. Suggestions that the Plan would next be considered in June 2000 is both unhelpful and inconsiderate and can only raise the hackles of those who, rightly or wrongly regard the adoption of the Development Plan as a precursor to an economic boom in Athy. There is no reason why the extraordinary speed with which the officials directed the latter stages of the Town Development Plan consultation process prior to the local elections could not be repeated so as to ensure its early adoption. But don’t hold your breath dear reader for speed is not a natural attribute of council officials. Otherwise why are we still waiting for speed limits to be extended outside the town and why is it that there has not been any concerted attempt to implement any form of traffic management to ease the town’s traffic problems.

Athy Urban Development Group played a highly significant part in highlighting the Inner Relief Road as a local election issue. Those involved in that group are for the most part uninvolved in party politics, being housewives and men whose only interest is their home town of Athy. The forty or so men and women walked every housing estate dropping leaflets which explained to the public the facts surrounding the inner relief road and laying to rest the myth that Athy’s future development depended on such a roadway being built.

Democracy has prevailed even if the whingers on the sideline still refuse to acknowledge that the Inner Relief Road was an election issue. Every excuse under the sun will be canvassed in support of their claim that the election was not an exercise of the local people’s franchise for or against the road plans. The facts show that every candidate who opposed the inner relief road increased his vote substantially while those who supported the road showed a dramatic loss of votes over previous election results. The people of Athy have spoken with a clarity which deserves to be listened to and councillors and officials might now take on board their views. The time has now come for a united approach on a by-pass for Athy with a complementary new street system, which would allow our town to develop in a natural and progressive way. Our new Town Council must ensure that we are not cursed by future generations for complicity in the destruction of our town which could only result from the building of an Inner Relief Road.