Misplaced Pages

The Senate of Southern Ireland was the upper house of the Parliament of Southern Ireland, established de jure in 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The Act stipulated that there be 64 senators, but only 39 were selected and the Senate met only twice before being dissolved: on 28 June and 13 July 1921 in the Council Room of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Dublin.

Composition

The Senate's composition was specified in the Second Schedule of the 1920 act, and the mode and time of selection in the Fourth Schedule. These were similar to those suggested for the Senate in the report of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. The 64 members were as follows:

• 3 ex officio members:
  • The Lord Chancellor of Ireland, intended as the presiding officer of the Senate. The Lord Chancellor had previously been the chairman of the Irish House of Lords in the Parliament of Ireland prior to its abolition.
  • The Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Lord Mayor of Cork.
• 17 "Representatives of Commerce (including Banking), Labour, and the Scientific and Learned Professions" to be nominated by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for a term of 10 years.
• 44 members elected by various interest groups:
  • Elected for a term of 10 years:
    • 4 Archbishops or Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church holding Sees situated wholly or partly in Southern Ireland.
    • 2 Archbishops or Bishops of the Church of Ireland holding Sees situated wholly or partly in Southern Ireland.
    • 16 Peers (not necessarily members of the Peerage of Ireland) who were taxpayers, or ratepayers in respect of property, and had residences, in Southern Ireland.
    • 8 members of the Privy Council of Ireland of no less than two years standing who were taxpayers or ratepayers in respect of property in and had residences in Southern Ireland.
  • 14 representatives of county councils, elected for a term of three years:
    • 4 from each of Leinster, Munster, and Connacht
    • 2 from the three Ulster counties not in Northern Ireland (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan)

Election and boycott

The election details were given by Orders in Council on 22 April 1921, which made the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper the electoral registrar and returning officer. Elections would use single transferable vote, except that groups electing two senators used multiple non-transferable vote. Only electors of a given group could stand in that group's election, except for the county council groups.

Only 39 of the 64 senators were selected or elected. The Irish Republic declared by Sinn Féin in 1919 rejected the legitimacy of the 1920 act. Sinn Féin had gained control of the county councils in the 1920 local elections. Áine Ceannt as secretary of the General Council of County Councils wrote to the Dáil Ministry asking whether to participate. Only W. T. Cosgrave favoured participation, on the basis that the republic's First Dáil had agreed to use the Southern Ireland Commons election to select the members of the Second Dáil. Other ministers favoured a boycott, both on the principle that the selection process was undemocratic, and on the pragmatic grounds that unionists would have a majority whereas a boycott would leave it inquorate. Accordingly, on 28 April 1921 Austin Stack as Minister for Home Affairs issued a proclamation ordering "that members of County Councils and other bodies who uphold the right of the Irish people to choose their own representatives and Government take no part in the partial election so proposed for the said Senate". The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Labour Party supported the Republic, and the Catholic hierarchy also refused to co-operate. Of the incomplete membership, many had participated in the Irish Convention.

Of the 39 selected, 27 took the Parliamentary Oath of Allegiance, of whom 19 attended one of the two meetings. Fifteen attended the first and twelve the second, of whom eight attended both. Of the peers and privy councillors, 19 (all bar Cloncurry, Meath, and Westmeath) signed a letter refusing to act as a Senate if the elected Commons were replaced by an appointed "Crown Colony" assembly.

List

Supersession

In 1922, both the Irish Republic and Southern Ireland were superseded by the Irish Free State. Some of the Southern Ireland senators were subsequently senators in the Free State Seanad (upper house), either appointed by W. T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council, or elected by the members of the Dáil (lower house).

See also

• Parliament of Southern Ireland.

References

• Report of the Proceedings of the Irish Convention. Command papers. Vol. Cd.9019. Dublin: HMSO. 1918. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
• "Government of Ireland Act, 1920 [as enacted]". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
• "Election of Senators (Southern Ireland) Order, 1921". The London Gazette (32307): 3384–3387. 29 April 1921. Retrieved 11 September 2020.

Citations

1. ^ "The Southern Irish Parliament; Formal Opening Ceremony". The Irish Times. 29 June 1921. p. 5.
2. ^ "Meeting of Southern Parliament". The Irish Times. 14 July 1921. p. 4.
3. Cd.9019 p.13
4. O'Flanagan, J. Roderick (1870). The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of Ireland, from the earliest times to the reign of Queen Victoria. Vol. v.1. London: Longmans, Green. p. 14 – via Internet Archive.
5. Election of Senators (Southern Ireland) Order 1921, ss. 2, 6, 19
6. Election of Senators (Southern Ireland) Order 1921, s.14; "Irish Senates (Proportional Representation) Order, 1921". The London Gazette (32307): 3400–3407. 29 April 1921. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
7. Election of Senators (Southern Ireland) Order, 1921 s.8(1)
8. ^ "Elections to Southern Senate". Digital Repository of Ireland. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
9. "Order prohibiting elections to Southern Senate". Digital Repository of Ireland. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
10. ^ Cd.9019 pp.52–53
11. Dunraven, Earl of (1922). Past Times and Pastimes. Vol. II. London: Hodder and Stoughton. p. 73.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
12. ^ Whyte, Nicholas (17 February 2002). "The Senate of Southern Ireland, 1921". Northern Ireland elections. Access Research Knowledge. Retrieved 8 March 2004.
13. "Senate of Southern Ireland". Debrett's House of Commons. London: Dean. 1922. p. 278.
14. ^ "1922 Seanad Members". Members Database. Oireachtas. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
15. "Past Presidents". Dublin Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
16. O'Day, Alan; Fleming, Neil (11 June 2014). Longman Handbook of Modern Irish History Since 1800. Routledge. ISBN 9781317897118 – via Google Books.
17. "Papers of George O'Callaghan-Westropp (1864–1944)". UCD. pp. IE UCDA P38. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
18. The Christian advocate. Vol. 95. Hunt & Eaton. 1920. p. 993.
19. "Remembrance Day". The Irish Law Times and Solicitors' Journal. 71: 323. 1937.
20. "The Incorporated Law Society of Ireland". The Irish Law Times and Solicitors' Journal. 55: 124. 1921.
21. B., J. W.; T. G. Moorehead (23 October 1937). "Obituary: Sir John William Moore". British Medical Journal. 2 (4007): 831–834. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4007.831. PMC 2087590.
22. Crawley, Frank C.; H. C. Drury; William Pearson; W. Boxwell (February 1933). "In memoriam. Sir William Taylor (1871–1933)". Irish Journal of Medical Science. 8 (2): 86–90. doi:10.1007/BF02954546. ISSN 1863-4362. S2CID 71882024.
23. ^ "The Southern Irish Parliament; Election of Senators". The Irish Times. 28 May 1921. p. 4. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
24. "Parliament of Southern Ireland; Election of Senators". The Irish Times. 8 June 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
25. Maume, Patrick (1999). The long gestation: Irish nationalist life 1891–1918. Gill & Macmillan. p. 101.
26. "Irish point of view on new tillage rules; Rt. Hon. Walter McMurrough Kavanagh Expresses Opinion With Regard to Compulsory Tillage Regulations in Ireland Farmer's Comments How Regulations Appear to an Irish Landowner". Christian Science Monitor. Boston. 28 March 1917. p. 3.
27. "Obituary: Sir Thomas Stafford, Bt., F.R.C.S.I". British Medical Journal. 1 (3881): 1102. 25 May 1935. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.3881.1102. PMC 2460354. PMID 20779108.
28. Waldron, Laurence A. (11 June 1921). "Letters to the Editor: The Southern Senate". The Irish Times. p. 6. Retrieved 15 September 2020.

• Members of the Senate of Southern Ireland
• Lists of political office-holders in the Republic of Ireland