The urban and rural districts of Northern Ireland were created in 1899 when the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 came into effect. They were based on the system of district councils introduced in England and Wales four years earlier. (See List of Irish local government areas 1898–1921 for a historical list of districts in all of Ireland.) At the time of Northern Ireland's creation in 1921, Ireland as a whole was divided into thirty-three administrative counties and six county boroughs; the administrative counties were in turn subdivided into several boroughs, urban districts, and rural districts. Each district was divided into a number of district electoral divisions (DEDs). Northern Ireland received a total of six administrative counties, together with the county boroughs of Belfast and Derry. The six administrative counties all included a number of urban and rural districts in 1921, but no boroughs. As of 1923, when the DEDs were created ahead of the 1924 local elections, there were 653 DEDs, across 64 local authorities (including the 2 county boroughs, 31 rural districts and 31 urban districts). In rural and urban districts, each DED would elect a certain number of councillors by first past the post (in single-member DEDs) or block vote (in multi-member DEDs). Except where otherwise stated in the below tables, all DEDs were coterminous with wards. Groups of DEDs also formed county electoral divisions (CEDs), which elected councillors to the county councils, forming an upper tier of government above the urban and rural district councils. By contrast, county boroughs were single-tier bodies, independent of the county councils. The council, whose members were elected by their DEDs, had powers of both a district council and a county council.

Evolution and reform

Urban District Councils could petition for a charter of incorporation, changing the status of the urban district to that of a Borough. The following districts became boroughs in this way: A small number of districts were abolished or created after 1921. The entire system of local government in Northern Ireland was overhauled by the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972, which replaced the county boroughs, administrative counties, urban districts, and rural districts with 26 local government districts. The new system came into effect on 1 October 1973.

County boroughs

Urban and rural districts by administrative county

Administrative county of Antrim

County Armagh

§ Lurgan Rural District was abolished on 1 April 1967, and a small part transferred to Lurgan Borough. The rest was assigned to the new Craigavon Urban District, but Craigavon Development Commission rather than Lurgan Rural District Council became Craigavon Urban District Council.

Administrative county of Down

County Fermanagh

† All district councils in Fermanagh were abolished in 1968, merging with Fermanagh County Council to create a unitary county council.

Administrative county of Londonderry

† The district is now known as Derry. ‡ In 1969 Londonderry Rural District was redesignated as Londonderry Urban District, its council was abolished, and its municipal governance transferred to the Londonderry Development Commission, which had also replaced the corporation of Londonderry County Borough (which the rural district surrounded).

County Tyrone

Sources