People, Place and Power – The Grand Jury System in Ireland

47 These local elections ushered in sweeping social and political change. Women were eligible to vote in the local elections, along with all persons who already held the vote for the Westminster parliament. The political make-up of Ireland’s local government bodies was transformed. With the exception of five Ulster counties, nationalists dominated on councils across Ireland (Fig. 22). The Irish grand juries assembled for the final time for the spring 1899 assizes. One of the last acts of each body was to select three jurors to be councillors on the new county councils, as was permitted under the Local Government Act (Fig. 23). 50 Fig. 22. County Council election results, April 1899 Tyrone Constitution, 14 April 1899, p. 7. Compass from William Larkin’s Map of Galway, 1819 L. Brown Collection