St Stephen's Green, a division of Dublin, was a borough constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the United Kingdom House of Commons from 1885 until 1922 on the first past the post electoral system.

From the dissolution of 1922, shortly before the establishment of the Irish Free State, the area was no longer represented in the UK Parliament.

Boundaries This constituency was named for St Stephen's Green and comprised parts of the south-east of the city of Dublin.

From 1885 to 1918, it was defined as:

From 1918 to 1922, it was defined as:

History Prior to the 1885 general election, the city was the undivided two-member Dublin City constituency. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Dublin was divided into four divisions: College Green, Dublin Harbour, St Stephen's Green, and St Patrick's. Under the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918, the city was allocated seven seats: in addition to the four existing constituencies, the new divisions were Clontarf, St James's and St Michan's.

Sinn Féin used the 1918 general election to elect members of Dáil Éireann, inviting all those elected in Ireland to sit as a Teachta Dála (known in English as a Deputy) in the Dáil rather than at Westminster, although only the Sinn Féin members attended. Thomas Kelly sat as a member of the First Dáil.

Under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the area was combined with the St Patrick's Division to form Dublin South, a 4-seat constituency for the Southern Ireland House of Commons and a single constituency at Westminster. At the 1921 election for the Southern Ireland House of Commons, the four seats were won uncontested by Sinn Féin, who treated it as part of the election to the Second Dáil. Thomas Kelly was one of the four TDs for Dublin South.

Under s. 1(4) of the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922, no writ was to be issued "for a constituency in Ireland other than a constituency in Northern Ireland". Therefore, no vote was held in Dublin South at the 1922 United Kingdom general election on 15 November 1922, shortly before the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom on 6 December 1922.

Members of Parliament From To Member Party 1885 1888 Edmund Dwyer Gray 1888 1892 Thomas Alexander Dickson 1892 1898 William Kenny 1898 1900 James Henry Mussen Campbell 1900Campbell was defeated 'very largely because of the actions of die-hard unionists' - see D.George Boyce, Alan O'Day (editors) 'Defenders of the Union: A Survey of British and Irish Unionism Since 1801', page 123 'Unionist abstentionism helped to unseat Campbell' - see Alvin Jackson, 'Ireland 1798-1998: War, Peace and Beyond',page 226 'He lost the seat partly because middle-class Protestants, like their Catholic counterparts, were involved in a widespread flight to the suburbs, where the air was cleaner and the rates lower.' - Pádraig Yeates, 'A City in Wartime – Dublin 1914–1918: The Easter Rising 1916', 1904 James McCann 1904'[This] by-election ... revealed how deep the divisions in unionist ranks ran, but it was also a harbinger of the future. Senior figures within the Unionist Party were not inclined to contest the seat, especially as the new nationalist-backed ‘independent’ candidate, Laurence Waldron, was a stockbroker and former unionist who would be a moderating influence in the House of Commons. Several leading business figures, including Sir William Goulding, chairman of the Great Southern and Western Railway, and Lord Iveagh, head of the Guinness dynasty, resigned from the Unionist Representative Association in protest at a grass-roots revolt that led to the association supporting the candidacy of Norris Godard, a Crown solicitor. It was a foolish nomination, as Godard could stand only by relinquishing his lucrative government post, which he declined to do. The former Unionist MP for the constituency, James Campbell KC, was available to stand and had the added advantage of being wealthy enough to finance his own campaign, but the Unionist Representative Association would not have him. There followed an unseemly row about the rival candidacies of another lawyer, C. L. Matheson, and Michael McCarthy, a colourful renegade nationalist from Cork who was popular with militant unionists because of his books denouncing the evils of Catholicism. Matheson secured the nomination but, as expected, was defeated by Waldron.' - Pádraig Yeates, 'A City in Wartime – Dublin 1914–1918: The Easter Rising 1916', In fact, Campbell had been elected as one of the MPs for Dublin University in 1903. McCarthy's article is at Michael McCarthy (Irish lawyer) 1910 Laurence Ambrose Waldron 1910 1918 Patrick Joseph Brady 1918 1922 Thomas Kelly

Elections Elections in the 1910s

Elections in the 1900s

Death of McCann

Elections in the 1890s

Kenny appointed a Judge of the High Court

Kenny appointed Solicitor-General

Elections in the 1880s

Death of Gray

Notes, citations and sources Citations

Sources

External links Dáil Éireann Members Database Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas Dublin Historic Maps: Parliamentary & Dail Constituencies 1780–1969 (a work in progress)