Irish general election timetable

This article deals with elections to Dáil Éireann 1918–2007.

"Notes:"
* (a) 1918: The "dissolution" is of the 1910-1918 Parliament of the United Kingdom. The "polling day" relates to the territorial constituencies only. The result in those constituencies were declared on 28 December, to allow time for votes by members of the Armed Forces to be sent to the Returning Officers. The University constituencies voted as follows: Dublin University polling 16-20 December, declaration 21 December; National University of Ireland polling 18-22 December, declaration 23 December and Queen's University of Belfast polling 16-20 December, declaration 20 December.
* (b) 1921: The "dissolution" is the date of the last meeting of the First Dáil. A resolution passed at that meeting provided for the Dáil to be dissolved on the assembling of the Second Dáil. The "nominations" date applied to all constituencies except National University of Ireland whose nominations closed on 14 May 1921.
* (c) 1922: The "dissolution" is the date of the last meeting of the Second Dáil (at least in the view of the "Aireacht" - the Government of the Irish Republic). It is not clear when or if that Dáil was formally dissolved for the purposes of the laws of the Irish Republic: There was a dispute between pro and anti Anglo-Irish Treaty members of Sinn Féin about whether the Third Dáil was the legitimate successor of the Second Dáil. A resolution of the Second Dáil, passed on 20 May 1922, provided for a partial general election with the Deputies from the six counties of Northern Ireland continuing in office. The position for the purposes of British law is clear: On 27 May 1927, the Provisional Government of Southern Ireland issued a proclamation calling an election on the 16 June 1922 for the "“Provisional Parliament pursuant to the Free State (Agreement) Act”" and not for the "Third Dáil". The Provisional Government's proclamation made no mention of Northern Ireland. Lord Fitzalan, later in the day, declared that the Parliament of Southern Ireland was dissolved and "“I hereby call a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament”" [Source: Macardle (1999), pg 718 and [http://www.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/may_1922.htm DCU Website.] ] The "nominations" date applied to all constituencies except Dublin University whose nominations closed on 8 June 1922. The "polling days" for National University of Ireland were 12-15 June 1922, with the declaration being made on 16 June 1922. The date of the "first meeting" was originally to have been 1 July 1922. The Dáil was prorogued on five occasions and eventually met on 9 September 1922. In practice no representatives from Northern Ireland tried to participate in the Third Dáil, so the provisional government proclamation seems to have prevailed over the Second Dáil resolution.

References

References

*"Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922", edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
*"The Times" (of London), various editions

External links

* http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/