Cork Local Studies Digital Archive

Parliamentary Politics

https://www.corkdigitalarchive.ie/files/original/8a86dc702f2e34ed0a19bcf5a77db655.pdf

Article by J.C. Walsh published in 'Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review' Vol IX No. 35 September 1920.

Parliamentary politics did not function normally with the banning of Dáil Éireann but there were still some significant developments. It met in secret in June to vote $1 million to the Department of Defence to establish courts of justice and equity. In July, the Minister for Finance Michael Collins announced the success of the National Scheme set up the previous year which had been oversubscribed by £40,000. Politics continued to function officially at local government level.  In January, when Proportional Representation was used for the first time, local government elections gave Sinn Féin, other nationalists and Labour control of the majority of borough and urban district councils. Many of those councils went on to elect strong nationally-minded mayors and chairmen.  Elections to county councils and other local authorities in June produced even better results for Sinn Féin, particularly in Ulster where they gained control of 36 of the 55 rural district councils. Success in Derry came at a cost, when in July sectarian violence erupted after the election of a nationalist mayor in which 19 were killed and over 50 wounded in four days of continuous violence.

Two events of long-term significance in the last week of 1920 were the passing of the Government of Ireland Act which partitioned Ireland and the return of Eamon De Valera from America, after an eighteen-month tour of fundraising, rallies and other activities. His visit had gone some way towards winning support for Ireland’s cause in what had been a good year for the country in the propaganda war that ran in tandem with its War of Independence with Britain.