Local history: The first meeting of Mayo County Council in 1899
By Tom Gillespie
TO mark 100 years of local government in Mayo - 1899 to 1999, Mayo County Council published a booklet, Public Spirited People, with the text by Joe McDermott.
One of the chapters is on the first county council elections in the county.
On Thursday, April 6, 1899, the electorate of Mayo voted for a new local authority.
The Grand Jury System of Ireland was to follow its English counterpart into obscurity. The Irish county councils would not have all the power of their English equivalents, for instance, control over policing policy.
The Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, made the parliamentary electorate, together with peers and women over the age of 30, the electorate.
Households and persons occupying part of a house were given a vote in local elections.
However, women remained ineligible for election to the county councils until 1919, though they could be elected to district councils and boards of guardians before 1898.
In 1918 married women aged 30 and over also acquired the vote. Proportional representation was introduced for the 1920 county council elections by an Act of 1919.
On April 6, 1899, elections were held for the rural districts and two councillors were elected for each District Electoral Division.
These rural district councils, which survived in to the new Free State, would in turn nominate an extra member, normally the chairman, to represent them on the county council.
The county councillors to be elected included one from each county electoral division and included one for each county electoral division and the Grand Jury was entitled to nominate three members to the first council.
The county council in session could they co-op two further members.
Rules of membership would then apply to the elected council, such as disqualification through ineligibility and non-attendance.
John E. Lavan, elected for the Kilkelly electoral division, was disqualified for non-attendance and was replaced by Michael Delaney in the first year of the council’s operation.
In all, 42 members attended the meetings of Mayo County Council over the first three years of office.
Those elected were: Anthony Murphy, Achill; Henery Devaney, Ardnaree; Thomas Walsh, Balla; John Garvey, Ballina; Michael H. Feerick, Ballinrobe; Luke Dillon, Ballyhaunis; Dominick Murtagh, Ballyvary; Peter Joyce, Bangor; John O’Malley, Belmullet; James Daly, Castlebar; Conor O’Kelly, Claremorris (chairman); Thomas Hughes, Cong; John McHale, Crossmolina; W.F. Mulligan, Charlestown; John E. Lavan, Kilkelly; Anthony Maguire, Killala; Myles O’Donnell, Kiltimagh; William Doris, Louisburgh; Daniel Morrin, Mount Falcon; Pat O’Connell, Newport; Maurice C.J. Blake, Port Royal; John Davitt, Swinford; John McDermott, Urlaur; John Walsh, Westport; R. Powell (Grand Jury nominee); E. Thomas O’Conel (Grand Jury nominee); A. Knox Guildea (Grand Jury nominee); P.J. Kelly (representing Rural District Council area - R.D.C.); Bernard Egan, Ballina RDC; John Ryan, Ballinrobe R.D.C.; Edward McAndrew, Balmullet R.D.C.; H.M. Canning, Castlebar R.D.C.; Thomas Tighe, Claremorris R.D.C.; Major Saunders Knox-Gore, Killala R.D.C.; M.C. Henry, Swinford R.D.C.; Patrick Tuohy, co-opted by councillors; W.E. Flately C.E, co-opted; M.J. Melvin, replaced by B. Egan, June 1900; Thomas O’Callaghan, Ardnaree, replaced W.E. Flately who died March 1900; Michael Delaney, Kilkelly/Ballyhaunis, replaced by John E. Lavan, who was disqualified; Pat Higgins; T. Geraghty and J. Mills.
In the first three years of the council there were 46 meetings and the best rate of attendance was that of Thomas Walsh of Balla electoral division with 39 attendances, closely followed by William Doris of Louisburgh with 37 attendances. Another high rate of attendance was achieved by Patrick J. Tuohy who was co-opted to the first council.
The elected members of the new county council filed into the Grand Jury room of the courthouse in Castlebar at noon on Saturday, April 22, 1899. There was no formal handover of power.
It was anticipated by the Local Government Board that the guiding hand of the three Grand Jury men, who retained their seats by right of the 1898 Act, to the new council, would give continuity to the deliberations.
In effect this did not happen. The new men were capable and competent, the first minutes demonstrate a robustness, an intent to get to grips with county issues and indeed national issues immediately.
The political issues were foremost on the order of business and within a short period of time would bring the county council in to conflict with the sheriff of Co. Mayo, Lord Bingham.
Mr. Conor O’Kelly of Claremorris was elected chairman without opposition. A finance committee of 12 members was chosen. Land League members such as Doris, Egan and Maguire were among its personnel.
The council then adopted its first political resolution, a long statement concerning the distress currently being experienced by the small farmer population of Co. Mayo, in the face of large holdings of graziers.
In 1898, when the new council took office, Valentine J. Blake was the county secretary. He signed the minutes of the first council meeting, as did the new chairman, Conor O’Kelly. There was no reference to his appointment or continuing appointment in the minute book or the newspaper accounts of the day.
As county council secretary his name first appears before the public in a series of signed newspaper advertisements placed by the council in May 1899. These related to the council's election of a coroner and other business to do with the annual revision of valuations.
In the following years the following held the position of county secretary: October 1899 Denis O’Kelly; 1900-1909 John Clarke; 1909-1919 Joseph T. Kelly; 1919-1944 Michael Joseph Egan; 1942-1953 C. O’Cleirlachan; 1953-1983 John O’Donnell; 1983-1990 Patrick Fahey, 1990-December 2000 Padraig Hughes, and now John Condon.