Government of Ireland Act 1920 (Parliamentary and Dáil constituencies)

The Government of Ireland Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5 c. 67) is a law of the United Kingdom. This article concerns the parts of the Act which provided for parliamentary constituencies in the Northern Ireland House of Commons and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. Sinn Féin used these constituencies to elect the Second Dáil 1921-1922 and the Southern Ireland ones to elect the Third Dáil 1922-1923.

Irish Republic 1921-1922

Sinn Féin decided to use these constituencies (in both parts of Ireland), for the purposes of the revolutionary Dáil Éireann. The Irish elections, 1921 were used to elect the Second Dáil. These seats replaced the Parliament of the United Kingdom constituencies provided for by the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918 (7 & 8Geo. 5 c. 65). These had been used as Dáil constituencies for the First Dáil.

The number of seats was increased from 105 to 180 (52 in Northern Ireland and 128 in Southern Ireland, subsequently the Irish Free State).

Unsurprisingly only Sinn Féin Deputies took up the opportunity to sit in the Second Dáil. The Ulster Unionist and Irish Nationalist MPs from Northern Ireland and the four Independent Unionist MPs representing Dublin University stayed away.

outhern Ireland 1921-1922

Only the Dublin University MPs attended for the intended first meeting of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. The institution was however used to give legal effect to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, before the devolved Parliament was dissolved to be replaced by the constituent assembly of the Irish Free State (better known as the Third Dáil).

Northern Ireland 1921-1929

The Northern Ireland constituencies were used for the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, from 1921 until 1929. The Northern Ireland Parliament then established new constituencies under the House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act 1929.

Irish Free State 1922-1923

The Third Dáil redistributed constituencies in the Irish Free State (formerly Southern Ireland) by enacting the Electoral Act 1923 (No. 12/1923). The new constituencies were used for the election of the 4th Dáil in 1923.

List of Northern Irish constituencies for the 1st and 2nd Parliaments of Northern Ireland and the 2nd Dáil

"Explanation of columns
* Number: The number of the constituency (in alphabetical order).
* Constituency: The name of the constituency. Compass points follow the area name in this list, which is not always the case in the official version of the name. Links are provided to the Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies article and to the Dáil Éireann constituency article.
* Created: The year of the election when a Dáil constituency of the same name was created. Northern Ireland constituencies were all newly created in 1921.
* No.: The number of times a constituency with the same name had been created (if more than one then there was a gap before the current version of the constituency was created). In practice there were no such cases amongst these constituencies.
* Seats: The number of MPs/TDs elected from the constituency.
* Change: Change in the number of seats since the last Dáil distribution of seats (which took effect in 1918).

Sources:
* "Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results 1921-1972", compiled and edited by Sydney Elliott (Political Reference Publications 1973)

ee also

ee also

* Official names of United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies
* List of UK Parliament Constituencies in Ireland and Northern Ireland
* List of Dáil Éireann constituencies in Ireland (historic)
* List of Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies 1921-1973

External links

* http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/en.toc.dail.html
* http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/
* http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/boundaries.html