Abstract
It has long been known that support for parties and for individual candidates tends to be concentrated particularly in certain parts of geographical constituencies, reflecting both socio-demographic patterns and the ‘friends and neighbours’ effect. This chapter, based on sub-constituency data, uses an innovative mapping approach to illustrate the variation of support for candidates and parties within constituencies, a pattern that is especially marked within sizeable rural constituencies.
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Notes
- 1.
Michael Gallagher, ‘Candidate selection in Ireland: the impact of localism and the electoral system’, British Journal of Political Science 10:4 (1980), pp. 489–503, at p. 491.
- 2.
J. P. O’Carroll, ‘Strokes, cute hoors and sneaking regarders: the influence of local culture on Irish political style’, Irish Political Studies 2:1 (1987), pp. 77–92.
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Adrian Kavanagh, ‘All changed, changed utterly? Irish general election boundary amendments and the 2012 Constituency Commission report’, Irish Political Studies 29:2 (2014), pp. 215–35, at p. 224.
- 4.
Confidential interview with a local Fine Gael party official.
- 5.
Paul M. Sacks, ‘Bailiwicks, locality and religion: three elements in an Irish Dáil constituency election’, Economic and Social Review 1:4 (1970), pp. 531–54; A. J. Parker, ‘The “friends and neighbours” voting effect in the Galway West constituency’, Political Geography Quarterly 1: 3 (1982), pp. 243–62.
- 6.
Ron Johnston et al., ‘The neighbourhood effect and voting in England and Wales: real or imagined?’, British Elections & Parties Review 10:1 (2009), pp. 47–63.
- 7.
General election results in the Republic of Ireland are published officially only for the constituency level. However, as polling boxes (which relate to specific areas within a constituency) are opened at the start of the election count, party officials keep a tally of how many votes have been won by each candidate in those boxes and these tally figures give a detailed geographical breakdown of the votes won by each candidate/party at the sub-constituency level.
- 8.
Peter Taylor and Graham Gudgin, Seats, Votes and the Spatial Organisation of Elections (London: ECPR Press, 2012).
- 9.
John Coakley, ‘Fixed-boundary constituencies and the principle of equal representation in Ireland’, Irish Political Studies 30:4 (2015), pp. 531–54, at p. 550.
- 10.
It is worth noting that members of the Irish Army posted overseas are among the few electors entitled to vote by postal ballot.
- 11.
Michael Gallagher, ‘Politics in Laois–Offaly 1922–1992’, pp. 657–87 in Padraig G. Lane and William Nolan (eds), Laois History & Society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin: Geography Publications, 1999), pp. 676–8.
- 12.
Research interview with Deputy Richard Bruton, 3 October 2019.
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Kavanagh, A., Durkan, W., D’Arcy, C. (2021). Geographical Factors in Constituency Voting Patterns. In: Gallagher, M., Marsh, M., Reidy, T. (eds) How Ireland Voted 2020. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66405-3_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66405-3_9
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