# 1919 Sligo Corporation election

An election for all 24 members of Sligo Corporation took place on 15 January 1919, using the single transferable vote (STV). Urban districts in Ireland held annual elections on 15 January each year under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, using plurality voting to replace a cohort of one-third or one-quarter of their councillors. Those elections for 1915–19 were postponed while the First World War was still in progress.
The Sligo election was held under the Sligo Corporation Act 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. xxiii), a local act passed in the UK Parliament under the sponsorship of the Sligo Ratepayers Association (SRA), an alliance of Protestants and businessmen which opposed the actions of the outgoing corporation. The election under the 1918 act was exempt from the general postponement.
In the 1919 election, the SRA ran a slate of 18 candidates (11 Protestant and 7 Catholic) and won 8 seats; Sinn Féin, Labour, and an Independent Nationalist had a majority of 13 seats between them. It was the second STV election ever in Ireland; the first was in Dublin University at the November 1918 Westminster election. The outcome was seen as a vindication of STV, which was adopted for all Irish local authorities by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919, in time for the 1920 local elections. The 1918 act envisaged triennial elections in Sligo, as the 1919 act did throughout Ireland. In the event, the Irish War of Independence, Irish Civil War, and aftermath meant the next local elections were postponed until 1925.

## Results by party

Results by party :
| Party | Party | Seats | First Pref. votes | FPv% | ±% |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | 8 | 823 | 37.27 | |
| | Sinn Féin | 7 | 674 | 30.53 | |
| | Labour | 4 | 414 | 18.75 | |
| | Other | 5 | 300 | 13.59 | |
| Totals | Totals | 24 | 2,208 | 100.00 | — |

## Results by Ward
### East Ward

East Ward - 8 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| | Sinn Féin | Dudley M. Hanley | | 160 |
| | Sinn Féin | Luke Gilligan | | 87 |
| | Sinn Féin | Thomas H. Fitzpatrick | | 73 | 94 |
| | Independent | Patrick White | | 71 | 83 |
| | Labour | Michael Nevin | | 56 | 64 | 65 | 67 | 67 | 69 | 70 | 70 | 75 | 93 |
| | Labour | James Gray | | 53 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 58 | 60 | 60 | 62 | 65 | 72 | 74 | 74 | 75 | 76 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Young Warren | | 51 | 52 | 53 | 53 | 55 | 55 | 58 | 65 | 65 | 65 | 66 | 66 | 98 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | James J. Nelson | | 41 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 43 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Bernard McDonagh | | 35 | 39 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 46 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 50 | 51 | 63 | 79 |
| | Labour | William J. Reilly | | 25 | 28 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 36 |
| | Sinn Féin | Henry Monson | | 23 | 42 | 46 | 47 | 47 | 49 | 51 | 52 | 56 | 61 | 67 | 68 | 70 | 70 |
| | Labour | Peter Costello | | 18 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Hugh Sinclair | | 16 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | William Conmy | | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Thomas Mahon | | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| | Labour | Bart O'Riordan | | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Electorate: 946 Valid: 726 (%) Quota: 81 ||||||||||||||||||

### North Ward

North Ward - 8 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| | Independent | John Jinks | | 123 |
| | Independent | John Lynch | | 72 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Arthur Jackson | | 55 | 59 | 60 | 62 | | | | | | | |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Henry Wood-Martin | | 53 | 55 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 59 | 60 | 60 | 61 | 61 | 61 |
| | Sinn Féin | Frank Nally | | 43 | 49 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 53 | 53 | 55 | 55 | 58 | 62 |
| | Independent | James Devins | | 32 | 46 | 47 | 47 | 47 | 49 | 49 | 54 | 54 | 55 | 57 |
| | Sinn Féin | James Costello | | 31 | 35 | 37 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 41 | 43 | 43 | 48 | 52 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | James Campbell | | 30 | 35 | 35 | 36 | 36 | 37 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 41 | 44 |
| | Labour | Peter Heraghty | | 22 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 33 | 38 | 40 | 40 | 41 | 54 |
| | Labour | James Kelly | | 19 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 32 | 34 |
| | Labour | Pat Derrig | | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 16 |
| | Sinn Féin | John Feeney | | 12 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| | Sinn Féin | William J. Kelly | | 12 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 19 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Thomas Begley | | 9 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Thomas Flanagan | | 7 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | John Noone | | 7 | 9 | 9 |
| Electorate: 769 Valid: 542 (70.48%) Quota: 61 |||||||||||||||

### West Ward

West Ward - 8 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Henry Campbell-Perry | | 169 |
| | Labour | Henry Depew | | 94 | 96 | 96 | 100 | 100 | 104 | 106 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | James Connolly | | 91 | 95 | 95 | 95 | 96 | 99 | 106 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Percy Campbell Kerr | | 82 | 112 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | Edward J. Tighe | | 79 | 91 | 96 | 97 | 97 | 104 | 110 |
| | Independent | William Hande | | 56 | 59 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 69 | 75 | 94 |
| | Sinn Féin | John Hughes | | 56 | 57 | 57 | 57 | 58 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 65 | 73 |
| | Sinn Féin | William J. Feeney | | 55 | 56 | 56 | 56 | 59 | 61 | 65 | 65 | 71 | 86 | 90 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | James Hamilton | | 51 | 53 | 54 | 56 | 56 | 58 | 71 | 75 | 77 | 80 | 89 |
| | Sinn Féin | Patrick J. Flanagan | | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 46 | 46 | 47 | 47 | 61 | 78 | 107 |
| | Sinn Féin | Jordan Roche | | 40 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 48 | 48 | 59 |
| | Sinn Féin | Samuel Tarrant | | 38 | 39 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 43 | 44 | 44 |
| | Sligo Ratepayers Association | John Finan | | 34 | 37 | 38 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| | Labour | John Lambert | | 18 | 19 | 19 | 23 | 32 |
| | Labour | Thomas D. Howley | | 18 | 18 | 18 | 20 |
| | Labour | Andrew Thompson | | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Electorate: 1,344 Valid: 940 (69.94%) Quota: 105 |||||||||||||||

## Sources

* Local Government Board for Ireland (1920). Annual report for the year ended 31st March, 1919. Command papers. Vol. Cmd.578.
* "8 & 9 Geo.V c.xxiii(P) Sligo Corporation Act, 1918". The local and private acts passed in the eighth and ninth years of the reign of His Majesty King George the fifth : being the eighth session of the thirtieth parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland : with an index. Eyre & Spottiswoode for William Richard Codling. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
* "Proportional representation" (PDF). Sligo County Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.