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 The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

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 England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is En ...

. Prior to the passing of the Act, there were 68 borough corporations in Ireland. However, many of them were ineffective, some were virtually defunct and none of them in any way representative of their populations. The Act dissolved all but 10 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.

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.

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 ...

's application for restoration of its charter was granted in 1846. Cashel also applied, but without success. Boroughs in Schedule B Boroughs in Schedule I

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 Town commissioners were elected local government bodies that existed in urban areas in Ireland from the 19th century until 2002. Larger towns with commissioners were converted to urban districts by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, with ...

. By 1876, only Carrickfergus was still governed by commissioners appointed under the 1840 Act.

References

Sources

;Primary: * * Bills: 183
HC
183
HCHLHC amend Lords
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HCrecommit
1837–
HCrecommit2nd recommitO'Connell amendments
183
HCHLHL and HC and HL
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HCcommit2nd recommitHL
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HC recommitHL
* Municipal Corporations Commissioners (HC 1835 xxvii–xxviii and HC 1836 xxiv 3–29)
ReportSupplement
Appendix: circuits reporting on towns
Pt 1: S, Mid, W, SE, and pt NEPt 2: end NE and pt NWPt 3: end NW
Dubli
Contentspt 1 pp.1–116pt 2 pp.117–2
* Municipal Boundaries Commissioners (HC 1837 xxix 011
ReportMaps
: ;Secondary: * Mark Callanan & Justin F Keogan (editors), Local Government in Ireland Inside Out, Dublin, 2003 * Desmond Roche, Local Government in Ireland, Dublin, 1982

Citations

{{Local government in the Republic of Ireland United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1840 Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning Ireland History of local government in the United Kingdom History of local government in Ireland 1840 in Ireland Boroughs of Ireland Local government legislation Electoral reform in Ireland (1801–1921) Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1972 endings 2001 endings