History of Irish Voting

Bredabe

Hi,
I'm trying to find a short version of voting history in Ireland(rules etc) for historical background on a project, anyone knows where I can find authentic info on this?

Peregrinus

Are you looking for details of how people voted in past elections, or for details of how the right to vote developed and was extended?

Bredabe

Peregrinus wrote: »

Are you looking for details of how people voted in past elections, or for details of how the right to vote developed and was extended?

Mostly on the right to vote and its extensions, but some stats for recent votes might help bulk it out.

Peregrinus

From 1800 to 1922 UK voting franchise rules in Ireland were the same as in the rest of the UK, so whatever you can find about the UK franchise in the nineteenth century broadly applies to Ireland. Catholic emancipation, for example, applied in both Britain and Ireland. The English Reform Act 1932 was paralleled by a very similar Irish Reform Act 1832. The Representation of the People Act 1867, which applied in England and Wales, was quickly followed by the Representation of the People (Ireland) Act 1868. And so forth.

So, basically, whatever you read about the extension of the franchise in England during the 19th century (and there is plenty of material about that out there_ broadly applies to Ireland too. For details of particular dates or pieces of legislation, Wikipedia is as good a starting point as any other. Wikepedia also has a page on the History of the franchise in Ireland which give a broad overview, emphasising the parallel with electoral law in England and pointing to a few differences, and with lots of links that you can follow up for more detail.

From 1922 onwards the story is fairly dull. The Irish Free State had universal adult franchise without disctinction of sex right from the get-go, so there isn't room for a huge amount of further development from that point. Points of note during this period are (a) unsuccesful attempts by Fianna Fail governments to change the voting system to first-past-the-post; (b) Supreme Court ruling requiring equal reprsentation of voters in different constituencies and (c) lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1872.

schemingbohemia

Prisoners right to vote is a more recent change, causes mayhem in the UK but not so much here.

From Citizens Information:

Right to vote

You have a right to be registered in the political constituency where you would normally live if you were not in prison. However, you have no right to be given physical access to a ballot box by temporary release.

If you happen to be on parole or temporary release at the time of an election, you are free to vote where you are registered.

Your rights if you are on remand are the same as if you were a convicted prisoner.

The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2006 provides procedures that enable prisoners to vote by post. If you are in prison, you can register for a postal vote in the area that you would otherwise be living in. If you are already registered to vote in that area and wish to be able to vote from prison then you should fill out a form called Form RFG. If you are not already on the register then you should complete Form RFA4 as well. These application forms are available in all prisons and should be sent to the local authority for your area.

Vetch

If you have an interest in local elections you could start with a Diarmaid Ferriter book, Lovers of Liberty. Local Government in 20th Century Ireland.
Depending on how much work you want to do, various official reports and other works might be found in the National Library.

tabbey

Historically, the right to vote was based on rateable valuation, so a medium farmer could vote in local elections while the landless labourer or subsistence farmer could not.

Having a vote was not always a blessing. Until about 1870, there was no secret ballot. If you voted aagainst the landlord's wishes you might be evicted.

The same was true across the water; David Lloyd George related how his political motivation stemmed from when as a five year old, he returned to school after the holidays to find that some of his schoolmates had disappeared. They had to move after their fathers were evicted due to voting against the landlord. You can hear his story (recorded when he was alive) at the Lloyd George museum in Llanistumdwy near Criccieth in North Wales.