Searching Irish Election Rolls/ Plus Irish 2019 Election In My Family Area

Electoral Registers Ireland

Electoral registers were first introduced in 1832 with the Great Reform Act. The 1850 Reform Act entitled men owning or leasing property valued at £10 to vote. In order to vote in Parliamentary elections those holding leases had to have property valued at £12 a year. Women holding property could vote in local elections, but could not vote in Parliamentary elections. Most Irish men rented property from year to year and didn't meet earlier requirements which required a life lease on property to vote. The Reform Act of 1884 lowered requirements and renters who paid £10 in annual rent, and owners with property valued at £10 could vote. Although the 1884 act expanded the electorate 40% of adult males still couldn't vote. 

The 1885-1886 registers are the most inclusive ones available online at Findmypast.ie. Registers for the areas of Dublin 1908-1915, and Clare for earlier years are available online at Findmypast.ie. 

The Co. Clare register for 1860 included the information in the image below. 

The coverage of the 1885-1886 registers are listed as follows at Findmypast.ie (they are the ones held by the British Library). 

I found one ancestor on these voting registers. Thomas Huane of Fallakeeran, Co. Mayo, Ireland was on the rolls for 1885-1886. He was listed as a lessor on a house and garden on Griffith's Valuation in 1856. He was also listed as a renter of a house and land in 1856. It's nice to know the Huanes weren't destitute, and met the qualifications to vote in 1884. Unfortunately there are no rolls for Galway online so I could not find my Mullen family.   

The sons of Thomas Huane/Huvane didn't pay the Poor Rate on their property in Fallakeeran in 1909 when they appeared in petty sessions court in Ballindine. In order to vote rates had to be paid; so Thomas Jr. and Stephen likely were barred from voting. 

As the years passed the electorate kept expanding until it included all adult men and women. 

2019 Visit During Election

I visited Ireland in 2019 when they were having an important election which also addressed divorce laws along with electing officials.

When I travel I love observing the local cultures and traditions. In Ireland campaign ads are banned from TV. This seems to create more traditional style campaigns where those running meet with voters. This style of voting is outline by Hugh Linehan in an NPR interview. He is a host of the Irish Times Inside Politics podcast. "LINEHAN: You're quite right. It is a small country of about 4.8 million people, so it's about the population of Alabama. And it's a very kind of a gregarious, you know, intimate kind of a country. We don't have six degrees of separation. You'd be lucky to get two degrees of separation. You know, a very common opening line in a conversation is, oh, I used to know your mother, you know? So everybody knows their politicians very often. You know, I've met all my local politicians and not just because I'm a journalist. Everybody's kind of had a personal contact with people. So the doorstep - showing up on the doorstep and saying hello to people is important. Every day this week when I'm cooking the dinner, my doorbell has rung and there's been a politician on the doorstep asking for my vote." 

Here we see some of the political campaigners sitting on the trunk of a car outside a voting location in my ancestral area of Tuam in 2019. Election day seems to have a jovial celebratory feel in Ireland. You can sit outside the polling place and have a few drinks after the hard fought election is over. 

How do you get voters' attention without TV ads? You can use loudspeakers mounted on cars and signs on cars. 

Signs are important too. Signs are mounted on poles, fences, and lawns everywhere during elections. 

As in the United States polling places are often in schools as this one was in 2019 Tuam. 

There is one main highway in Tuam which meant there was a traffic jam on election day 2019. 

The winners of races in Ireland put thank you signs on their signs after winning the election. 

Dublin signs are often placed high on poles; likely for visibility and to avoid sign theft. 

The old electoral rolls can add to our knowledge of our ancestors. I learned that my ancestor Thomas Huane met the qualifications to vote and therefore was in a better financial position than 40% of the male population over 21. With so many records lost any additional information is appreciated including the electoral registers. 

(PS: The divorce laws were loosened as a result of the 2019 election).