Another factor is what historian Diarmaid Ferriter has referred to as the "utter contempt" that had quickly developed at central government level for local democracy. Ernest Blythe had been appointed as Minister for Local Government and Public Health in 1922 by William T. Cosgrave and he wasted little time in stamping his authority. 

The attitude of Blythe and the senior officials in the Department of Local Government and Public Health was paternalistic and austere — they were interested in rectitude and efficiency rather than local democracy. The minister was also working on a significant piece of legislation, the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act. This legislation gave power to the minister to dissolve local authorities and replace them with a centrally appointed commissioner. 

May 1923, just at the end of the Civil War, saw the first local authority dissolved under the provisions of the 1923 act and, to no one’s surprise, the victim was Kerry County Council which had passed into Republican control. Dublin Corporation was also in the firing line. It had antagonised the government, particularly on the issue of the treatment of prisoners. 

On February 20, 1924, the Town Clerk of Dublin, John J. Murphy, received a letter informing him that an inquiry into the performance of Dublin Corporation was to be held, under the 1923 Act. At the end of the inquiry, chaired by Nicholas O’Dwyer, it came as little surprise when Minister Séamus Burke announced that Dublin Corporation was to be dissolved, with its properties, powers and duties transferred to three government-appointed commissioners from May 20, 1924.

After the dissolution of Dublin Corporation, the government’s attention turned to Cork. In 1924, Cork Corporation was a difficult council, divided on pro- and anti-Treaty lines. The bitter mayoral election of January 1924, which anti-Treaty councillor Seán French won by one vote, did nothing to ease hostilities. 

Lord Mayor French struggled to unite the council and, with the Cork Progressive Association and the Cork Examiner questioning the quality of local administration, Minister Séamus Burke intervened, ordering the holding of an inquiry, starting on August 26 in Cork Courthouse. 

There was controversy even before the inquiry commenced. Alderman Richard Beamish — a councillor, TD and the city’s largest ratepayer through Beamish & Crawford — was quoted in the local media as saying that the decision had already been made in Dublin to dissolve Cork Corporation.

The inquiry, chaired once again by Nicholas O’Dwyer, sat for nine dramatic days, before packed public galleries at each session. Lord Mayor Seán French offered a staunch defence of the corporation, highlighting the tremendous difficulties it had faced in recent years. 

These included the murder of Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain, the death on hunger strike of his successor, Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney, and the burning of much of the city, including City Hall.  In addition, MacSwiney’s successor as Lord Mayor, Donal Óg O’Callaghan, had spent much of his tenure on the run.

Interestingly, Lord Mayor French asserted that the people of Cork were partly to blame if local government in the city was not as effective as it should be, saying: "A real and serious attempt should be made to educate the citizens in local services and to instill into them an interest in local government bodies and generally in local affairs."

As was the case in Dublin, Nicholas O’Dwyer wrote an anodyne report which did not contain a firm recommendation. However, confirming the assertion made by Alderman Richard Beamish in advance of the inquiry, Cork Corporation was duly dissolved, with Philip Monahan taking over as commissioner from noon on Friday, October 31.

At the appointed time, Monahan entered the council chamber in Cork Courthouse, interrupting a meeting of Cork Corporation, and he formally asked the councillors present to take their belongings and leave. 

Cork Corporation was now dissolved.

An advantage of the commissionership years in Dublin and Cork was that it gave the government the breathing space to formulate proposals for the reform of local government, specifically the introduction of the management system, whereby power would be shared between an appointed City or County Manager and the elected council. 

Councillors would be responsible for policy. The City/County Manager would be responsible for the implementation of policy, staffing matters and day-to-day administration. 

The government decided that this system should be trialled in Cork City and accordingly the Cork City Management Act was passed in 1929. During a heated debate in Dáil Éireann on the Cork legislation, Seán French TD — Lord Mayor of Cork when the Corporation was dissolved, and now a Fianna Fáil deputy — argued that he wanted "a City Manager appointed and not a city master". 

Éamon de Valera made a telling contribution to the debate. He supported the idea of separating the deliberate functions from the executive powers and stated: "I welcome the fact that we are at last giving up this idea of keeping all power centralised in Dublin." 

Cork Corporation was re-instated in March 1929 following the city’s first local elections since January 1920. Once again, Seán French was elected Lord Mayor.

The country’s first City Manager was duly appointed in Cork in 1929, Philip Monahan. In his subsequent 30-year reign as the City Manager in Cork, Monahan was an efficient and decisive — albeit abrasive — official, extremely confident in his own judgement. He was openly dismissive of local councillors, despite having been one himself. 

Most unusually for a man with his experience of revolutionary activism and imprisonment, he did not let fraternal ties interfere in anything to do with public employment and public funds. Furthermore, although imposed on the city by central government, he was never the minister’s man, nor the Lord Mayor’s man.

The dissolution of Cork Corporation 100 years ago was a means to an end — a critical juncture that led to the emergence of the management system which underpins the entire local government system to this day.

• Councillor Dan Boyle is Lord Mayor of Cork, and Aodh Quinlivan is director of the Centre for Local and Regional Governance (CLRG) at University College Cork.