Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840^[1]

Act of Parliament
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
Repealed	1972 and 2001
Other legislation
Amended by	Juries Act (Ireland) 1871 Statute Law Revision Act 1874 (No. 2) Statute Law Revision Act 1875
Repealed by	Local Government Act 2001 Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972
Status: Repealed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.^[2]

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 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.

At the Acts of Union 1800, there had been 117 boroughs entitled to send MPs to the Irish House of Commons. From 1801, this number was reduced to 33 boroughs entitled to send MPs to the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Commissioners were reported to inquire into the state of municipal corporations in Ireland. They found that 99 had actually exercised any functions in the previous century.

In addition, there were 7 boroughs which were "at not very remote periods, Corporate Municipalities, acting, or at least constituted, under Royal Charters still on record".

There were 5 boroughs, "the existence either of a corporation or of burgage tenure is noticed in ancient records, but no charter of incorporation [was] discovered".

There were 6 boroughs "though possessing charters empowering them to return Members of Parliament, never, as far as we have been able to trace, possessed the character of Municipal Corporations".^[3]

There were 30 corporations that had become extinct since the Union.^[4]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Wexford's application for restoration of its charter was granted in 1846. Cashel also applied,^[5] but without success.^{[citation needed]}

Boroughs in Schedule B

Boroughs in Schedule I

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.^[6]

Primary

• "Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840". The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. XV Part II. Her Majesty's Printer's. 1840. pp. 599–669. ISBN 9780331531558. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
• Bills: 1835 HC; 1836 HC, HL, HC amend Lords; 1837 HC, recommit; 1837–8 HC, recommit, 2nd recommit, O'Connell amendments; 1838 HC, HL, HL and HC and HL; 1839 HC, commit, 2nd recommit, HL; 1840 HC recommit, HL.
• Municipal Corporations Commissioners (HC 1835 xxvii–xxviii and HC 1836 xxiv [23–29] ): Report, Supplement, Appendix: circuits reporting on towns Pt 1: S, Mid, W, SE, and pt NE, Pt 2: end NE and pt NW, Pt 3: end NW; Dublin Contents, pt 1 pp.1–116, pt 2 pp.117–2
• Municipal Boundaries Commissioners (HC 1837 xxix [301] 1) Report, Maps

Hansard debates on Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Bills, 1835–1840

Session	Commons			Lords			Other house's amendments
	(1st &) 2nd r	Ctee	3rd r	2nd r	Ctee (& Rpt)	3rd r	L in C	C in L	2nd L in C
1835	1st r: Jul 31 2nd r: Aug 10 12	Aug 13	Aug 17
1836	Feb 29	Mar 7 8 14 18 21 22 23	Mar 28	Apr 18	Apr 26, May 9 16	May 18	May 19, Jun 10 13	Jun 17 27	Jun 30
1837	1st r: Feb 7 8 2nd r: Feb 17	Feb 20 21 22, Mar 20	Apr 10 11	Apr 13 25	May 5 Jun 9
1837–38	1st r: Dec 5 11 2nd r: Feb 2	May 29, Jun 1 11 15 18	Jun 25	Jul 9	Jul 12	Jul 27	Aug 2	Aug 4	Aug 9
1839	1st r: Feb 14 2nd r: Mar 1 8 22	Jun 28 Jul 4	Jul 15	Jul 22	Jul 25	Aug 5	Aug 12
1840	Feb 14	Feb 24 28, Mar 3	Mar 9	Mar 23, May 4	May 14 15, Jun 12 19 29, Jul 6 Rpt: Jul 10	Jul 20 31	Aug 3	Aug 5 6	Aug 7

Secondary

• Callanan, Mark; Keogan, Justin F., eds. (2003). Local Government in Ireland Inside Out. Dublin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Roche, Desmond (1982). Local Government in Ireland. Dublin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)