What constituency am I in?

May 13, 2007 9:40 AM

This is a question directed at the Irish MeFites out there. The General Election is drawing near, but I have no idea what constituency I'm in. Where am I? Please help!

It's all very confusing. I live in Raheny, near the village centre. As far as I can remember, in the last General Election I was in Dublin North Central. But now I have no idea!

For instance, we've had Dublin North Central candidates canvassing on my road, but there are posters for Dublin North East candidates just around the corner! Did Raheny get reclassified without anyone being told? Or did the boundary commission pull a stupid by drawing a line right through the village? (Thereby defeating the purpose of voting for someone who's supposed to help your area, in my book at least.) I can't seem to find anything online to confirm either way. So I turn to the power of those with more knowledge than I...

posted by macdara to law & government (7 comments total)

Raheny appears to be in Dublin North-East, but the centre of the village is to be on the border. It seems to depend on what street you’re on; it also seems that the borders haven’t changed since the last election. Comparing the constituence map with the 1901 map on Wikipedia is not amazingly helpful, since it seems Kilbarrack has encroached on Raheny in the mean time.
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 10:38 AM on May 13, 2007

s/is to be/is/
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 10:38 AM on May 13, 2007

I concur with Aidan.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_North_East:

The constituency is almost entirely urbanised as well as quite diverse. It encompasses the Howth electoral area of Fingal County Council, the Darndale parts of the Artane electoral area, and the Donaghmede and Raheny parts of the Donaghmede electoral areas of Dublin City Council's area of responsibility.

Recent boundary suggestions propose that the Edenmore part of Raheny, which also lies within the Donaghmede electoral area, should be added to this constituency, out of Dublin North Central at the next general election.
posted by seymour.skinner at 10:39 AM on May 13, 2007

do you have some kind of voting administration you could contact? surely you are not the first person to have this question. they may even have a website with a map. a google search turned up this.

also, i don't know about ireland, but in every state i've lived in the u.s., all our relevant districts (city or county council, federal congressional, state congressional, etc) were printed on our voter's registration cards.
posted by thinkingwoman at 12:13 PM on May 13, 2007

Raheny appears to be in Dublin North-East, but the centre of the village is to be on the border. It seems to depend on what street you’re on; it also seems that the borders haven’t changed since the last election.

Thanks Aidan, I hadn't found anything like that map (my Google-fu must be failing me) but according to that I'm on the edge of Dublin North Central.

It also appears that one side of Watermill Road/Main Street is on North Central, but the other side is in North East. Ridiculous, that, and hence my initial confusion.

Thanks for everyone's assistance, much appreciated. Now I just have to find someone to vote for...
posted by macdara at 4:28 AM on May 14, 2007

Self link opportunity! Woot! [Joking.]

I've been building (slowly) a website which will eventually tell you exactly this.

IF you live within the boundaries of Dublin City Council, go to my dev site in progress and start typing your address. It will tell you your electoral division and constituency (I'm tracking the divisions in order to add councillor lookups eventually). In Dublin City, I'm prepared to stand by that answer.

It also works for Galway City and County, Leitrim and Mayo, should anyone else come looking here.
posted by genghis at 3:22 PM on May 14, 2007

You are covered. Joy.

According to the records I have (which are compiled by the city council's electoral services people, who for the record are by far the most competent in the land in my now-extensive experience)...

Odd numbers 33-45 and Manor House are in the Raheny St. Assam electoral division, and sit therefore in Dublin North East.

The rest of the street (1-21 odd numbers, and 2-50 even) are in the Clontarf East DED, which is part of the Dublin North Central constituency.

And, for the record, I have never had quite so much nerdly fun writing an answer here before, because this is so very fucking cool and I made it. :)
posted by genghis at 3:31 PM on May 14, 2007