pr-stv, or not pr-stv? that is the question. birth of pr – who’s the daddy? the concept of...
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PR-STV, or not PR-
STV?That is the Question
Birth of PR – Who’s the Daddy?
The concept of transferable voting
was first proposed by Thomas
Wright Hill in 1821.
Carl Andrae and Thomas Hare
independently created the system
of Proportional Representation by
means of the transferable vote in
1855 and 1857, respectively.
The Proportional Representation society of Ireland was
formed in 1911, shortly after a public lecture on the merits
of PR-STV given by Lord Courtney.
Birth of Irish PR
It took place in the Antient
Concert Rooms, now the Academy Cinema on Pearse Street.
It’s most noted member being
Arthur Griffith, founder of
Sinn Féin.
Arthur Griffith:
“Proportional Representation secures
that minorities shall be represented in
proportion to their strength. It is the
one just system of election under
democratic government”.
25th February, 1911
Birth of Irish PR
The first application of Proportional Representation in
Ireland was made in the Sligo town council elections in
January, 1919.
“Proportional representation has given Sligo a model
Council. There is no reason why it should not be equally
successful in Dublin and other cities and towns in Ireland.”
Irish Independent, 20th January, 1919.
Sligo – ahead of It’s time
As president of the Executive Council (Taoiseach) Eamonn
DeValera once made a
‘prophecy with regret’ that one
day “there would arise in the
country a movement to get rid
of Proportional Representation
and go back to single-member
constituency”
December 2nd 1937
Mystic Dev?
Fianna Fáil or Fianna Fail?
Replacing PR-STV with the single-member plurality system
has been rejected at referendums in 1959 and 1968, both
under Fianna Fáil governments.
R.S.V.P…
At the first meeting of the Dáil on the
21st January 1919, all but one Unionist
had ignored their invitations to attend.
Sir Robert Woods was the only one to
make a formal refusal, a member for
the Trinity College constituency.
Find out what it means to me
County Trinity
Trinity College originally
formed an electoral
constituency, electing four
deputies to Dáil Éireann.
However this was reduced to
three seats after the electoral
act (1923), and eventually
abolished in 1936 with the
Electoral (University
Constituency) Act (1936).
Landslide?
In the 1921 election for the Parliament
of Southern Ireland, (used by Sinn Féin
as the second Dáil election), Of 128
seats, only 4 were filled by unionists,
all from the Trinity College
constituency.
Anybody Home?At the first session of the ‘Parliament of Southern Ireland’ (June 1921) only the four Trinity College representatives turned up!
Remember
• Give you up
• Let you down
• Run around and desert you
PR-STV is never gonna…
Never gonna…
• Make you cry
• Say goodbye
• Tell a lie and hurt you