Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898
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The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 37) is a piece of legislation passed as an Act of Parliament by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1898 to establish a system of local government in Ireland on lines similar that had been recently created in Great Britain at the time.
This act brought in a mixed system of government, with county boroughs independent of county administration, and elsewhere a two tier system with county councils, along with borough, urban district and rural district councils. Urban districts were created from the larger of the town commissioners towns, while the smaller towns retained their town commissioners, but remained in a rural district for sanitary purposes.
The creation of these local government areas had a significant effect on Ireland as it allowed the local people in Ireland to take decisions affecting themselves. It also allowed the development of a new political class, creating a significant body of experienced politicians who would enter national politics in Ireland in the 1920s, and increase the stability of the transitions to the parliaments of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.
In Northern Ireland, the provisions of the act were replaced in the 1970s with a pattern of unitary authorities. In the Republic of Ireland, the act remains in force, albeit amended by several Acts of the Oireachtas.
Changes in county boundaries as a result of the Act
The Act also caused a number of county boundaries to be modified, with the result that a number of baronies, civil parishes and townlands now cross county boundaries:
- The Ballaghaderreen area (the civil parishes of Castlemore and Kilcolman), traditionally part of the County Mayo barony of Costello, was moved from Mayo to County Roscommon.
- The County Sligo portion of the civil parish of Kilmoremoy along with part of the neighbouring parish of Castleconnor (part of the Sligo barony of Tireragh), were transferred to County Mayo. This area is to the east of Ballina town.
- The parts of the civil parishes of Ballinchalla and Ballinrobe on the western shore of Lough Mask, in the County Galway barony of Ross, were transferred to County Mayo.
- The part of the civil parish of Inishcaltra in County Galway and the neighbouring parish of Clonrush, part of the County Galway barony of Leitrim, were transferred to County Clare. This area contains the village of Mountshannon on the north-western shore of Lough Derg.
- Most of the civil parish of Kilculliheen (the area on the north bank of the river Suir opposite Waterford city), which had originally part of the old "County of the City of Waterford" and had then formed part of the County Waterford barony of Gaultiere, was transferred to County Kilkenny, but became a new barony of Kilculliheen in its own right. The village of Ferrybank remained part of Waterford County Borough.
- The island of Inishbofin was transferred from the County Mayo barony of Murrisk to the County Galway barony of Ballynahinch.
- Athlone (included areas from County Roscommon)
- Ballinasloe (included areas from County Roscommon)
- Belfast (included areas from County Down)
- Bray (included areas from County Dublin)
- Carlow (included areas from Queen's County)
- Carrick-on-Suir (included areas from County Waterford)
- Clonmel (included areas from County Waterford)
- Drogheda (boundary redefined so that areas were exchanged between Counties Louth and Meath)
- Lisburn (included areas from County Down)
- New Ross (included areas from County Kilkenny)
- Newry (included areas from County Armagh)
See also
- List of Irish Local Government Areas 1900 - 1921
- Local government in the Republic of Ireland
- List of rural and urban districts in Northern Ireland
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