Dublin College Green (UK Parliament constituency)

Dublin College Green
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1922
Seats	1
Created from	Dublin

College Green, a division of Dublin, was a UK parliamentary constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1922.

Boundaries and boundary changes

This constituency comprised part of the city of Dublin. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons 1885–1922.

Prior to the 1885 general election, the entire city comprised the two-seat constituency of Dublin City. In 1885, Dublin was divided into four new single-member constituencies: Dublin Harbour, Dublin St Patrick's, Dublin St Stephen's Green, and Dublin College Green.

In 1918, the city was allocated seven seats: in addition to the four existing constituencies, the new divisions were Dublin Clontarf, Dublin St James's, and Dublin St Michan's.

From the 1922 general election, the area was no longer represented in the UK Parliament.

Dáil Éireann 1918–1922

The constituency election in 1918 was used by Sinn Féin to return one Teachta Dála (TD) to serve in the Irish Republic's First Dáil. In republican theory, every MP elected in Ireland was a member of this revolutionary assembly. In practice, only the Sinn Féin members participated in it. The body assembled on 21 January 1919 and last met on 10 May 1921. The First Dáil, according to a resolution passed on 10 May 1921, was formally dissolved on the assembly of the Second Dáil. This took place on 16 August 1921.

In 1921, Sinn Féin decided to use the UK-authorised elections for the Northern Ireland House of Commons and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as a poll for the Irish Republic's Second Dáil. A new pattern of multi-member constituencies replaced the old single-member seats. The city of Dublin was divided into three four-member seats: Dublin Mid, Dublin North-West and Dublin South.

This division seems to have been incorporated in the Dublin Mid seat, as the TD was re-elected there.

Politics

This was a strongly Nationalist area, which moved after the 1916 Easter Rising to supporting Sinn Féin. In the 1918 election, Sinn Féin got more than three-quarters of the vote.

As with the other Sinn Féin MPs, O'Kelly did not take his seat at Westminster but instead served in the revolutionary Dáil Éireann.

He was the presiding officer of the First Dáil (with the title Ceann Comhairle) from 22 January 1919. His appointment as Ceann Comhairle was confirmed 1 April 1919.

Members of Parliament

Key to parties: APN Anti-Parnellite Nationalist (Irish Parliamentary Party), Ind N Independent Nationalist, Ind N-H Independent Nationalist (supporter of Timothy Healy), L Liberal Party, Lab Irish Labour Party, N Nationalist (Irish Parliamentary Party), PN Parnellite Nationalist (Irish Parliamentary Party), SF Sinn Féin, U Unionist.

From	To	Name	Party	Born	Died
1885	1892	Timothy Daniel Sullivan	N1	1827	31 March 1914
1892	1896	Joseph E. Kenny	PN	1845	9 April 1900
1896	1900	James Laurence Carew	PN	1853	31 August 1903
1900	1915	Joseph Patrick Nannetti	IPP	1851	26 April 1915
1915	1918	John Dillon Nugent	N	1869	1 March 1940
1918	1922	Seán T. O'Kelly	SF	25 August 1883	23 November 1966

¹APN from December 1890.

Elections

Elections to fill a single seat, were conducted using the first past the post system.

• 1885 (30 November) general election
• 10,797 electors; 8,066 voted; turnout 74.71%
• Timothy Daniel Sullivan (N) 6,548 (81.18%)
• David Sherlock (L) 1,518 (18.82%)
• majority 5,030 (62.36%)
• 1886 (1 July) general election
• Timothy Daniel Sullivan (N): Unopposed
• 1892 (7 July) general election
• 6,781 electors; 5,125 voted; turnout 75.58%
• Dr Joseph Edward Kenny (PN) 2,568 (50.11%)
• Sir Henry Cochrane (U) 1,441 (28.12%)
• Timothy Daniel Sullivan (APN) 1,116 (21.78%)
• majority 1,127 (21.99%)
• 1895 (12 July) general election
• Dr Joseph Edward Kenny (PN): Unopposed
• Kenny resigned
• 1896 (6 April) by-election
• James Laurence Carew (PN): Unopposed
• 1900 (3 October) general election
• 10,223 electors; 4,640 voted; turnout 45.39%
• Joseph Patrick Nannetti (N) 2,467 (53.17%)
• James Laurence Carew (Ind N-H) 2,173 (46.83%)
• majority 294 (6.34%)
• 1906 (13 January) general election
• Joseph Patrick Nannetti (N): Unopposed
• 1910 (19 January) general election
• 8,739 electors; 5,798 voted; turnout 66.35%
• Joseph Patrick Nannetti (N) 4,559 (78.63%)
• George Bernard O'Connor (U) 1,239 (21.37%)
• majority 3,320 (57.26%)
• 1910 (3 December) general election
• Joseph Patrick Nannetti (N): Unopposed
• Nannetti died
• 1915 (11 June) by-election
• 8,167 electors; 4,261 voted; turnout 52.17%
• John Dillon Nugent (N) 2,445 (57.38%)
• Thomas Farren (Lab) 1,816 (42.62%)
• majority 629 (14.76%)
• 1918 (14 December) general election
• 21,414 electors; 12,515 voted; turnout 58.44%
• Seán T. O'Kelly (SF) 9,662 (77.20%)
• Joseph Coghlan Briscoe (Ind N) 2,853 (22.80%)
• majority 6,809 (54.41%)

See also

• List of Dáil Éireann constituencies in Ireland (historic)
• Dáil Éireann (1919-1922)
• Members of the 1st Dáil

References

• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)

External links

• http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0
• https://web.archive.org/web/20060423011521/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie:80/en.toc.dail.html
• Official website