{"id":19570,"date":"2022-10-17T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T19:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/?p=19570"},"modified":"2024-01-28T22:05:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T22:05:28","slug":"local-government-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/local-government-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Government 1898-1922"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_63 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/local-government-3\/#1898_Act_Reforms\" title=\"1898 Act Reforms\">1898 Act Reforms<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/local-government-3\/#Local_Government_Pre-Independence\" title=\"Local Government Pre-Independence\">Local Government Pre-Independence<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/local-government-3\/#War_of_Independence\" title=\"War of Independence\">War of Independence<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/local-government-3\/#Dail_Government\" title=\"Dail Government\">Dail Government<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/local-government-3\/#Councils_Strained\" title=\"Councils Strained\">Councils Strained<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1898_Act_Reforms\"><\/span>1898 Act Reforms<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Significant reforms in local government occurred in the 20 years prior to the Dail Declaration of Independence.\u00a0 The Local Government (Ireland)\u00a0 Act 1898 effectively removed local government from the Irish autocracy and placed it into the hands of elected councillors.<\/p>\n<p>The franchise was based on adult male ratepayers, which was substantially representative of nationalist Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>The cost of rates was shifted from landlords to tenants many of whom were in the course of acquiring their lands through the Land Commission.\u00a0 Local government board subventions supplemented rates.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Local_Government_Pre-Independence\"><\/span>Local Government Pre-Independence<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Local government had competence in a wide range of areas, including poor law, hospital dispensaries, local hospitals, roads, and sanitary services.<\/p>\n<p>A certain level of corruption had grown up in local government.\u00a0 There was a degree of inefficiency in the killing Home Rule by kindness policy.<\/p>\n<p>Local government had used opportunities to bring in-house expenditure on roads instead of contracting outward.\u00a0 This afforded opportunities for patronage.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"War_of_Independence\"><\/span>War of Independence<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>There were local government elections for rural and urban areas in mid and later in 1920.\u00a0 Nationalist councils declare their loyalty to the Dail local department of local government whereas Unionist councils declared loyalty to the Local Government Board.<\/p>\n<p>In many respects, the political structures were make-believe and flimsy. Much of the population adopted neutrality pending the outcome of hostilities.<\/p>\n<p>The collection of rates was a source of conflict.\u00a0 There was general resistance to paying rates at the best of times.\u00a0 Many groups vehemently opposed the collection of rates, whether those loyal to the Dail or the Local Government Board.<\/p>\n<p>The cost of malicious damage claims and injury claims rested with the local authority.\u00a0 This had the effect of charging the cost of damage to the local area, including damage caused by the IRA, rebels, British army and Black and Tans.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Dail_Government\"><\/span>Dail Government<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The \u00a0Dail government established its Department of Local Government under William T Cosgrave. \u00a0He had served as a council member of Dublin Corporation.<\/p>\n<p>The County Councils and most Borough Councils in the 26 counties of Southern Ireland recognised the Dail Department of Local Government as early as 1920.\u00a0 Northern Councils retained allegiance to the Local Government Board and ultimately to the newly established Northern Ireland Parliament in 1921.<\/p>\n<p>The Dail sought to maintain its local government system through a secret postal system through which letters were sent to the double address and rerouted to Dail ministers or transported by carrier from a dummy address.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Councils_Strained\"><\/span>Councils Strained<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Following the 1920 Sinn Fein and Labour victory in local elections, the Local Government Board suspended grants to councils that did not accept the authority of the government and the Local Government Board.<\/p>\n<p>With financial constraints, there were significant cutbacks.\u00a0 Local colleges and hospitals, which were uneconomical, were closed down.\u00a0The policy of placing war damage on rates effectively assisted the Dail government. The roads in Ireland deteriorated and the position was aggravated by the lack of expenditure and also by damage.<\/p>\n<p>Many members of the public maintained studied neutrality pending the outcome of hostilities.\u00a0There was a general resistance in some quarters to payment of rate.\u00a0 In some quarters, in other Dail courts and volunteers enforced payment.\u00a0 In other places, they opposed it.\u00a0Many sections of the IRA were involved in anti-rate agitation.<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-19570\" data-postid=\"19570\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-19570 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1898 Act Reforms Significant reforms in local government occurred in the 20 years prior to the Dail Declaration of Independence.\u00a0 The Local Government (Ireland)\u00a0 Act 1898 effectively removed local government from the Irish autocracy and placed it into the hands of elected councillors. The franchise was based on adult male ratepayers, which was substantially representative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19570"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31181,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19570\/revisions\/31181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}