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