Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840

The Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in Ireland
Citation	3 & 4 Vict. c. 108
Territorial extent	Ireland
Dates
Royal assent	10 August 1840
Commencement	25 October 1840
Other legislation
Repealed by	Local Government Act 2001 (Ireland), Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 (Northern Ireland)
Status: Repealed

The Municipal Corporations Act (Ireland) 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 108), An Act for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in Ireland, was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 10 August 1840. It was one of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Acts 1840 to 1888.

The Act followed similar lines to the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 which reformed municipal boroughs in England and Wales. Prior to the passing of the Act, there were sixty-eight borough corporations in Ireland, many of them were ineffective, some virtually defunct and none of them in any way representative of their populations. The Act dissolved all but ten of the corporations.

The Reformed corporations

The ten reformed corporations, which were named in Schedule A to the Act were to be styled as Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses, with the exception of Dublin where the title Right Honourable Lord Mayor was retained.

Number	Borough	County
1	Belfast	Antrim and Down
2	Clonmel	Tipperary
3	Cork (County of the City)	Cork
4	Drogheda (County of the Town)	Louth and Meath
5	Dublin (County of the City)	Dublin
6	Kilkenny (County of the City; merging the former boroughs of Kilkenny and Irishtown)	Kilkenny
7	Limerick (County of the City)	Limerick
8	Londonderry (City)	Londonderry
9	Sligo	Sligo
10	Waterford (County of the City)	Waterford

Dissolved boroughs

Under section 13 of the Act, the remaining 58 borough corporations were dissolved on 25 October 1840. The extinguished boroughs were listed in schedules B and I of the Act. Boroughs in schedule B could petition for a grant of a charter restoring borough status, as could any town with a population of more than 3,000. Boroughs in Schedule I were already effectively extinct at the time of the passing of the Act, and so were not permitted to apply for such a charter.

Only one town, Wexford, applied for a charter restoring borough status, which was granted in 1846.

Boroughs in Schedule B

Number	Borough	County
1	Ardee	Louth
2	Armagh (City)	Armagh
3	Athlone	Roscommon and Westmeath
4	Athy	Kildare
5	Bandon or Bandon Bridge	Cork
6	Boyle	Roscommon
7	Callan	Kilkenny
8	Carlow	Carlow
9	Carrickfergus (County of the Town)	Antrim
10	Cashel (City)	Tipperary
11	Charleville	Cork
12	Cloghnakilty	Cork
13	Coleraine	Londonderry
14	Dingle	Kerry
15	Dundalk	Louth
16	Dungannon	Tyrone
17	Ennis	Clare
18	Enniscorthy	Wexford
19	Enniskillen	Fermanagh
20	Fethard	Wexford
21	Galway	Galway
22	Gorey	Wexford
23	Kells	Meath
24	Kinsale	Cork
25	Longford	Longford
26	Maryborough	Queen's County
27	Monaghan	Monaghan
28	Naas	Kildare
29	Navan	Meath
30	New Ross	Wexford
31	Portarlington	Queen's County and King's County
32	Strabane	Tyrone
33	Tralee	Kerry
34	Trim	Meath
35	Tuam	Galway
36	Wexford	Wexford
37	Wicklow	Wicklow
38	Youghal	Cork

Boroughs in Schedule I

Number	Borough	County
39	Ardfert	Kerry
40	Athenry	Galway
41	Baltinglass	Wicklow
42	Bangor	Down
43	Belturbet	Cavan
44	Carlingford	Louth
45	Castlemartyr	Cork
46	Cavan	Cavan
47	Charlemont	Armagh
48	Duleek	Meath
49	Hillsborough	Down
50	Inistioge	Kilkenny
51	Kilbeggan	Westmeath
52	Kildare	Kildare
53	Killileagh	Down
54	Kilmallock	Limerick
55	Lifford	Donegal
56	Middleton	Cork
57	Newtownards	Down
58	Thomastown	Kilkenny

Town commissioners

Main article: Town commissioners

Many of the extinguished boroughs had an additional form of local government in place, in the form of commissioners appointed under the Lighting of Towns (Ireland) Act, 1828. Where such a body existed, it was deemed to be the successor to the corporation. Section 16 of the Act provided that any borough dissolved with property worth more than £100, and which did not have commissioners under the 1828 Act, should have a board of "Municipal Commissioners" established. In most cases, the commissioners appointed under the terms of the 1840 Act eventually adopted the terms of the 1828 Act or its replacement, the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act 1854. By 1876, only Carrickfergus was still governed by commissioners appointed under the 1840 Act.

References

• Mark Callanan & Justin F Keogan (editors), Local Government in Ireland Inside Out, Dublin, 2003
• Desmond Roche, Local Government in Ireland, Dublin, 1982