Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1921 to 1923. The constituency elected 8 deputies (Teachtaí Dála, commonly known as TDs) to the Dáil, using the single transferable vote form of proportional representation (PR-STV).

History and boundaries

The constituency was created in 1921 as an 8-seater, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, for the 1921 general election to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, whose members formed the 2nd Dáil. It succeeded the constituencies of Cork Mid, Cork North, Cork South, Cork South East and Cork West which were used to elect the Members of the 1st Dáil and earlier UK House of Commons members.

The constituency covered most of County Cork except the northern eastern and eastern parts and also excluding Cork city.

It was abolished under the Electoral Act 1923, when it was replaced by the new Cork North and Cork West constituencies,^[1] which were first used in the 1923 general election for the Members of the 4th Dáil.

TDs

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

The constituency's most notable TD was Michael Collins, who was Minister for Finance in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. He was killed during the Civil War in an ambush on 22 August 1922 near the village of Béal na Bláth, days before the 1923 general election.

Elections

1922 general election

In Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West, Sinn Féin's eight candidates (all outgoing TDs from the 2nd Dáil) were joined by two from the Labour Party and two from the Farmers' Party. Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin candidates won a combined total of 45.74% of the first-preference votes, with their anti-Treaty counterparts winning a combined 23.04%. Both Labour Party candidates were elected, along with one Farmers' Party candidate, unseating two anti-Treaty Sinn Féin TDs and one pro-Treaty TD.

1921 general election

At the 1921 general election to the 2nd Dáil, no seats were contested in the 26 counties which became the Irish Free State. In Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West only eight candidates were nominated for the constituency's eight seats. No ballot was needed, and all eight Sinn Féin candidates were elected unopposed after the close of nominations on 24 May 1921. The 8 TDs elected are listed here in alphabetical order:^[2]

See also

• Parliamentary constituencies in the Republic of Ireland
• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• List of historic Dáil Éireann constituencies
• Elections in the Republic of Ireland

References

External links

• Oireachtas Members Database