Local Election Boundaries revised

[Lone Shark]

A some of ye know by now, I'm always up for a bit of political debate, and that was before our local politics turned into an episode of Law and Order: SVU.

I'm struggling to download the full report (here - http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/05/ ... report.pdf), but based on this map here: http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/05/ ... andmap.png it looks as if the change in Offaly has been very simple - the Birr and Ferbane areas have been amalgamated, and they will now return six councillors between them instead of eight. It does seem a little bit anomalous that the Birr area will return six councillors for 25,359 population while the Edenderry one will return the same for 22,608 people, but these are the swings and roundabouts I guess. God knows it might have been no harm to reduce the numbers a bit more either - would we really be worse off if there were 12-15 councillors for the county?

Anyway, the only territory that MAY have moved - and I'm not sure of this - is Ballycumber. I've a sneaking feeling that Ballycumber was Ferbane LEA previously, now it's Tullamore - can anyone confirm or deny? If that is so, then the obvious likely casualty as a consequence, aside from national issues, would be Connie Hanniffy. She may hold on the basis of her standing as the only FG councillor in the area and you'd assume FG would be able to win two from six which would be a hold, but her territory looks like it would be badly split, if I'm correct in my hazy recollection. You'd expect too that three sitting FF councillors would be cut down to two, which I would imagine would leave Eamon Dooley and Sinéad Moylan Ryan battling it out to follow Ormond in.

In theory the wider territories should favour independents and representatives of smaller parties, but I'm not really sure that such candidates are out there, leaving out the two Birr lads, and in fairness neither of them are really radical indos in the spirit of Ming, Mick Wallace or Shane Ross. I don't know enough about the other independents, with the exception of Dervill Dolan who has always come across as quite competent, and Johnny Butterfield, who always comes across as Johnny Butterfield. John Bracken's just not the same since he got a haircut either. It'll be interesting to see if Labour can make some inroads now, I can't be bothered to examine every council but Offaly must be unusual with no Labour councillor.

I don't know that much about the Edenderry LEA, but I love the name Hammerlane. What a wonderfully named district. Not so much Monasterosis. That sounds like a bad dose right there.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Are the town councils being abolished (Burr, Tellamore and Edenderry)?

As for the lack of Labour councillors, perhaps areas such as Connacht where LAbour wouldn't have much of a precence would be the places to look. I'm thinking Mayo, Roscommon, Donegal (which I know isn't in Connacht).

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

[Plain of the Herbs]

Boundary changes that I can make out -

Ballycommon moves from Tullamore LEA to Edenderry LEA
Killoughey, Derrycooley, Rahan, Bawn and Ballycumber all move from the old Ferbane LEA to Tullamore LEA.

[Lone Shark]

Boundary changes that I can make out -

Ballycommon moves from Tullamore LEA to Edenderry LEA
Killoughey, Derrycooley, Rahan, Bawn and Ballycumber all move from the old Ferbane LEA to Tullamore LEA.

Was Killoughey not in the Tullamore LEA before? Surely Danny Owens would have been a Ferbane LEA candidate otherwise?

[Plain of the Herbs]

I took the previous boundaries from a printout I took about five years ago.

Danny Owens' situation depends on a number of factors. Like, where is DO's home place? Kilcormac-Killoughey parish (for GAA purposes) consists of 6 different divisions and Killoughey might not specifically be his home place.

I've a vague recollection that Killoughey was in Tullamore LEA when DO was first elected to the County Council in 2004, and that Killoughey division was shifted westwards to Ferbane prior to the 2009 elections as Offaly's population balance shifted eastwards. That left DO with a decision to make and he chose to run in Tullamore LEA. Searing Drive would be the man to ask, I guess.

Boundary changes that I can make out -

Ballycommon moves from Tullamore LEA to Edenderry LEA
Killoughey, Derrycooley, Rahan, Bawn and Ballycumber all move from the old Ferbane LEA to Tullamore LEA.

Was Killoughey not in the Tullamore LEA before? Surely Danny Owens would have been a Ferbane LEA candidate otherwise?

[Plain of the Herbs]

This is from the Club All-Ireland thread and might give some of the answer to the questions.

I also note Ballinacanty (see reference to Johnny Butterfield below) is in Rathrobin district.

Kilcormac is in the Ferbane EA, most of Killoughey and the Mountbolus area were transferred from Tullamore EA in a recent revision.
Danny Owens and Johnny Butterfield are based in the Tullamore EA.
You will find KK flags from the Blueball to the Boora bog/Finnamore lakes area. I take it this is the parish boundary.
Going from Blueball towards Killurin cross, townlands are, Pallas park-Pallas-MountPleasant, Blacklion, Ballincanty (Johnny Butterfield's home area), and finally Sconce. These maybe in the Killoughey ED.The KK catchement area stretches as far as the Laois border, next parish Clonaslee.
Gortnamona as in the Percy French song! is in the Killoughey area.

Hope this helps

I’m trying to get a handle on the population of the Kilcormac-Killoughey catchment area. I’ve got a map of the Electoral Divisions (civil parishes) of the county and the populations of those divisions. I’m getting a population of just over 3,000. Would this be in accordance with local knowledge?

What I have is –
Kilcormac : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :: : :: : : : : : 1,306
Broughal (between Kilcormac & Lumcloon) : : : : 119
Derrinboy (Kinnitty side of Kilcormac) : : : : : : : 293
Killooly (between Kilcormac & Killoughey) : : : : 271
Killoughey : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 653
Rathrobin (between Killoughey & Killeigh) : : : : 403
Total of the above : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 3,045

I take it Lea is Boora which is in Ferbane? Hard to know about Derrycooley – is that The Island?

Almost all this area is in the Ferbane Electoral Area. The exception is Rathrobin, who vote in the Tullamore LEA. Is this Danny Owens’ area? Johnny Butterfield too?

[Lone Shark]

Aha. I actually recall something along those lines all right, because I was pretty confident that Owens' current address would be in the Killoughey district.

Definitely Connie Hanniffy will be put under pressure by these changes, while you'd have to imagine that Danny Owens and Johnny Butterfield would pick up a lot of votes in the territories that are now going to be the Tullamore LEA.

Changes here aren't too severe at least - apparently I'm told by the new neighbours that Roscommon will lose eight councillors - that's a fairly dramatic change, not to mention a severe indictment of the amount of waste that was there already.

[KillougheyGoBragh]

Interesting read, as ever.
A little research finds Offaly LEA

[SearingDrive]

A some of ye know by now, I'm always up for a bit of political debate, and that was before our local politics turned into an episode of Law and Order: SVU.

I'm struggling to download the full report (here - http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/05/ ... report.pdf), but based on this map here: http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/05/ ... andmap.png it looks as if the change in Offaly has been very simple - the Birr and Ferbane areas have been amalgamated, and they will now return six councillors between them instead of eight. It does seem a little bit anomalous that the Birr area will return six councillors for 25,359 population while the Edenderry one will return the same for 22,608 people, but these are the swings and roundabouts I guess. God knows it might have been no harm to reduce the numbers a bit more either - would we really be worse off if there were 12-15 councillor
Anyway, the only territory that MAY have moved - and I'm not sure of this - is Ballycumber. I've a sneaking feeling that Ballycumber was Ferbane LEA previously, now it's Tullamore - can anyone confirm or deny? If that is so, then the obvious likely casualty as a consequence, aside from national issues, would be Connie Hanniffy. She may hold on the basis of her standing as the only FG councillor in the area and you'd assume FG would be able to win two from six which would be a hold, but her territory looks like it would be badly split, if I'm correct in my hazy recollection. You'd expect too that three sitting FF councillors would be cut down to two, which I would imagine would leave Eamon Dooley and Sinéad Moylan Ryan battling it out to follow Ormond in.
In theory the wider territories should favour independents and representatives of smaller parties, but I'm not really sure that such candidates are out there, leaving out the two Birr lads, and in fairness neither of them are really radical indos in the spirit of Ming, Mick Wallace or Shane Ross. I don't know enough about the other independents, with the exception of Dervill Dolan who has always come across as quite competent, and Johnny Butterfield, who always comes across as Johnny Butterfield. John Bracken's just not the same since he got a haircut either. It'll be interesting to see if Labour can make some inroads now, I can't be bothered to examine every council but Offaly must be unusual with no Labour councillor.

I don't know that much about the Edenderry LEA, but I love the name Hammerlane. What a wonderfully named district. Not so much Monasterosis. That sounds like a bad dose right there.

LS. HammerLane is near Portarlington. I believe both Longford and Offaly currently have 21 councillors, Longford's population is just less than half Offaly's population, I would have thought Longford would have proportionately less councillors.