Introduction
Under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 the City Council was placed on an entirely new footing. The City’s franchise was widened to include all rate-payers with a valuation of more than £10 annually thereby lifting the restrictions and allowing anyone with the necessary property qualifications to stand for membership. Daniel O’Connell was the first person to be elected Lord Mayor of Dublin under this franchise.
Dublin City Council Minutes & Reports
The work of the City Council and its committees are outlined in minutes and reports, which exist in the following formats: -
Examples of some 19th century committees
- Artisans’ Dwellings Committee
- Cleansing Committee
- Estates & Finance Committee
- Finance & Leases Committee
- General Purposes Committee
- Markets Committee
- Paving & Lighting Committee
- Public Health Committee
- Waterworks Committee
Examples of some 20th century committees
- Art Advisory Committee
- Bridges Committee
- Cultural Committee
- Electricity Supply Committee
- Housing Committee
- Libraries Advisory Committee
- Lighting Committee
- Roads & Streets Committee
- Town Planning and Street Committee
Dublin Mansion House Relief Fund 1880
Edmund Dwyer Gray, Lord Mayor of Dublin, set up the Dublin Mansion House Relief Fund on 2 January 1880 for the relief of distress in Ireland. Successive failures of harvests from 1877 – 1879 led to widespread devastation and hunger, historically known as the "little famine" of 1880.
The work of the fund was administered by a voluntary central committee and moneys were raised in Europe, North America, India and Australia. It was an all-Ireland relief fund with over 800 local committees set up in the thirty-two counties, of which membership of clergy of all denominations and poor-law medical officers was a pre-requisite. The central committee provided funds to voluntary committees who distributed in kind, supplying Indian Meal, turf and clothes to the most needy. The "Little Famine" lasted a comparatively short time, autumn 1880 yielded a good harvest and the Mansion House Fund was no longer required for the relief of distress. It was wound up in December of that year.
Rathmines and Rathgar Township Archives 1847 – 1930
Rathmines Township was created in 1847 by Act of Parliament. In 1862, under the Rathmines and Rathgar Improvement Act, the townlands of Rathgar and Sandymount (which included the present-day Ranelagh) were added and re-named the Rathmines and Rathgar Township.
This was further extended in 1866 to include Uppercross and in 1880 to include Milltown. Initially the Township was created as a sanitary area but new functions were added over time and the Township became responsible for public lighting, water supply, drainage and the erection of a number of small housing schemes. Under the Local Government (Dublin) Act of 1930 the Rathmines and Rathgar Township became part of the City of Dublin and its administration was taken over by Dublin City Council.