Episode 23 - Panel 6b - Municipal Unionism in Dublin 1898 – 1922 - Dr. Ciarán Wallace

Southern Irish Loyalism in Context

From the 1860s nationalists gradually came to dominate Dublin Corporation. In 1898 new legislation dramatically expanded the municipal franchise and the arrival of Labour and Sinn Féin in the early twentieth century radicalized city politics. Throughout this period, however, a small but solid bloc of unionists were consistently returned to City Hall. Meanwhile, in Dublin’s suburbs unionist enjoyed secure majorities, administering the daily affairs of Rathmines and Pembroke Urban District Councils. How did this long-established, resilient and influential electorate fare as Home Rule loomed and revolution erupted? Local government played a crucial, and intimate, role in the lives of the electorate - it really mattered who ran your local council. Slums, poor drainage, high taxes and allegations of municipal waste and inefficiency plagued Dublin Corporation. Unionists highlighted these nationalist failings in City Hall to show the likely outcome of Home Rule. Suburban life, in contrast, ran far more smoothly thanks to unionist councillors being ‘better men of business’, or so the argument went. But how accurate was this depiction of life on either side of the municipal boundary? Who were these unionist men of business? Was a typical unionist councillor just like his nationalist, Labour or Sinn Féin opponent? How did the emergence of women as municipal voters and candidates affect the selection or activity of Dublin’s unionist councillors? As a permanent minority, what local alliances did they seek? What compromises did they make? This paper will look at unionist responses to nationalist dominance in the Dublin region in the first two decades of the twentieth century. By examining their electoral performances in the city and suburbs, and identifying their political concerns and strategies, it will attempt to measure how successful they were in pursuing their goals. And, following the revolutionary events of 1916 – 1923, it will suggest where this resilient electorate, and their municipal activism, may have ended up. Dr Ciarán Wallace completed his PhD on Local politics and government in Dublin city and suburbs 1899-1914 in 2010 at Trinity College, Dublin. His research interests include civil society, Irish urban history and its placement in a wider United Kingdom framework. He has taught on British and Irish history, Irish studies, Culture & Heritage studies and historiography. He is currently an IRCHSS Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow working on a monograph Divided City: Dublin and its unionist townships 1899-1916.