Origin and Development of Local Government in Ireland

Synonyms

Ireland; Local administration; Local authority; Local government.

Definition

Local government is generally defined as a subnational government, comprising a complex set of democratically elected local councils and representative authorities that are created by constitutional or statutory parliamentary provisions for the purpose of providing and administering social services to the inhabitants of a particular local area or district, with a degree of autonomy and structural independence from the central government.

Introduction

A characteristic feature perhaps peculiar to contemporary Ireland in terms of the tenacity and persistence of exogenous institutional forms is that the origin and structure of its local government had its roots in the long history of conquest and invasion that began with the Anglo-Normans in the twelfth century, culminating in British colonial rule over Ireland. Indeed, much of the pre-nineteenth-century local government system of Ireland was the result...