New book by Cork academic captures stories behind 125 years of local elections

A leading Cork academic has written a book that looks at every local election held in Ireland over the past 125 years.

The book, Democracy on Your Doorstep, is the 10th book written by Dr Aodh Quinlivan, a senior lecturer at UCC’s Department of Government and Politics, and it is published with the support of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The book examines each set of local elections in Ireland from 1899 to 2024 inclusive.

Commenting on the publication, Alan Dillon, minister of state for Local Government and Planning, said it was the first book to analyse each local election individually.

“Throughout that journey, Aodh shines a spotlight on fascinating characters and stories from across the country, painting a colourful picture of the way we have approached local government over the last 125 years,” Mr Dillon said.

Electoral Commission chief executive Art O’Leary described the book as “an absorbing must-read” for anyone with an interest in local government.

“In Democracy on Your Doorstep, Quinlivan attempts the difficult task of categorising the 26 sets of local elections since 1899,” Mr O’Leary said.

“The six elections from 1899 to 1914 represent the national struggle for Home Rule. The seminal election of 1920 stands alone due to the success of Sinn Féin and the use of the local councils in the war against British authorities.

“The elections after the Civil War, in 1925 and 1928, were absorbing due to the efforts — mainly of Cumann na nGaedheal — to depoliticise local government and make it less partisan.”

Those efforts, Mr O’Leary said, largely failed, and the 17 local contests that have taken place since 1934 have tended to match, with some variations, the results of Dáil elections.

“In 1934, Fianna Fáil emerged as the strongest grouping in local government, followed by the United Ireland Party or Fine Gael,” he said.

“Fast forward 90 years to 2024 and Fianna Fáil was, once again, the strongest party of local government with 248 seats, closely followed by Fine Gael on 245.”

Dr Quinlivan said he was delighted at the publication of the book.

“The aim of Democracy on Your Doorstep is modest, merely to tell the stories behind the city and county council elections over the past 125 years and to give a flavour of the colour, excitement, and controversy, not to mention some of the characters involved.

“They include notable Corkonians like Martin Corry and Bernie Murphy,” he said.

Democracy on Your Doorstep is available in each local authority library in the country and also in UCC’s Lowercase bookshop.