Has urban Ireland finally a voice?

There's a bigger issue here about politicians having the balls to tell people the inconvenient truths that they don't want to hear, and it's a probably the single biggest problem in any democratic political system in any country. I warmed to Leo Varadkar the minute he started to come to national prominence and it was because he was one of the rarest examples I've ever seen in Ireland of a politican who didn't subscribe to the whole "tell everybody what they want to hear and promise them everything" style of politics as mastered and practiced for at least 40 odd years now by Fianna Fail. I'm not naive, I know politicans have to court voters in some fashion but I would instantly have more respect and trust for a politician who told me the hard unvarnished truth about something instead of telling me what I want to hear. I'd like to believe that there's a large cohort of other voters out there who feel similarly and who have never been served well by the endless procession of pothole fixers who have dominated Irish political life since independence.

A strange turn of events. In the UK the mining areas were those that really hated Thatcher and the right wing. Now you are saying they are right wing themselves.

Happened here already. It was a lot of the real lefties who wanted free everything for everyone who are now the ones flying tricolurs off lampposts, and telling "foreigners" to go back where they came from, even though they are often from here.

County Dun Laoghaire -Rathdown. It's part of a decades long plan to try and undo some of the British Empire Era planning to make the area better run. Dún Laohaire -Rathdown was a Dáil constituency created by the Electoral Amendment Act 1947 coterminous with the former Rathdown No. 1 rural district.It's a county made up of the Kingdom of Dun Laoghaire and part of the barony of Rathdown. It's a successor county (one of three) to county Dublin. County Fingal was also the same. County Dublin, was disestablished in 1994. It became Dublin City (Dublin City Council), County South Dublin, County Fingal and County Dun Laoghaire -Rathdown. Fingal, South dublin, County Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown now have their own councils and electorate districts. Basically if you live in these areas you should know your burrough etc from who your councillors are etc. The name "Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown" was given to the electoral county which was created in 1985. And it was made an administrative county in 1994 as mentioned. As an administrative county it is run by Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council (DLRCC). It now has six electoral areas and returns 40 councillors. For Dáil Eireann it is divided into 2 constituencies returning 4 and 3 TDs.

Why was this done you might ask? Dublin Council became too large and unwieldy. To cope with population growth. To simplify and localise administration rather than have it centralised and potentially badly managed.

It was never really meant to be one large county anyway.

Its all very interesting historically. And I am making a very complex story short. But when the British power of the pale was established the Gaels ran to the Dublin Wicklow mountains. And the only reason a lot of this area was made part of Dublin was simply to control it. Thus a lot of the infrastructure was not there to make life easier but to make it hostile to the local people. This includes things like roads etc. Military Road (now the R115) for example was only built to allow the British Army to clear the area and mountains of rebels. It wasn't built to make travel easier in the way more normal infrastructure is. I mention it because its one of many ways the country stands on a pre-existing framework that wasn't created for it's own well-being and there are consequences. Military Road was only built in 1809. It was built to conquer and operate a series of checkpoints and turnpike roads to harass locals. Four barracks were built along the road at Glencree, Laragh,Glenmalure, and Aghavannagh. Interestingly its an area that inspired many rebels from Robert Emmet to Padraig Pearse, Micheal Dwyer etc. The area was synonamous with the Mountainee Men and also the ascendency rebels. Thus a lot of the oldest infrastructure is hostile and partic a lot of the infrastructure that connected it to the city. The R115 itself is a bit of a rollercoaster its meant to be. It is why its quite deserted a lot.

British and Irish towns are planned rather differently. British towns tend to follow a square. Whereas Irish towns are on a crossroads or a ribbon pattern. You can tell when the true pale ends when you start seeing villages and towns on crossroads rather than squares. It's very noticeable. Basically when you see towns on the crossroads instead of on a square you are leaving a territory that is completely under British control.

DLR is quite different from a just suburb or Dublin City. The physical landscape ranges form an extensive coastline (17km) through extensive suburbs to agricultural lands and uplands of outstanding natural beauty. Approximately 53% of land is given over to urban developed/developing areas whilst 47% may be described as rural. The goal was to be able to administrate better to the area because it's needs were different from Dublin City as its landscape was different. This was planned even before the 1940s as the old ira used the dublin mountains a lot and were familiar with it. Well that could be myth.

Old Dublin was a lot smaller before. Sorry for the mammoth post I just thought the whole thing was interesting and Im doing research how colonial infrastructure was made to be hostile to local people! 🙂Sorry to bore everyone with my special interests.

IMO it needs a less English Sounding name tho. lol

GDA was over 2.2 million last year. Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.

The 4 Dublin councils or county dublin were just shy of 1.6 million, although the 1.6 million mark will now have been reached and GDA is about 2.25 million.

GDA is growing by around 100k people every 3 years so it wont be long before we get to 2.5 million.

I think Dublin would benefit from more councils, not less.

London is a mega city but still has a local council for every 300k people, on average.

County Dublin has 1.6 million population so 6 councils would seem a manageable number.

Why did you start this thread and why do you continue to stir the divide ?

Then explain why around me there are miles with no phone signal. Do you even know rural Ireland?