The urban districts and rural districts of Northern Ireland had their origin 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.
Contents
With the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, it received six of Ireland's thirty-three administrative counties, each subdivided into a number of urban and rural districts, plus the county boroughs of Belfast and Derry which were administered outside the counties.
In 1921 the number of rural districts was reduced by amalgamation.
Each district was divided into a number of District Electoral Divisions.
See List of Irish Local Government Areas 1900 - 1921 for a historic list of districts in all of Ireland.
Boroughs
Urban District Councils could petition for a charter of incorporation, designating the urban district a Borough. The first of these was Bangor in 1927, followed by Coleraine in 1928, Ballymena and Newtownards in 1937, Larne in 1938, Portadown in 1947, Carrickfergus, Enniskillen and Lurgan in 1949, with Lisburn being the last in 1964.
Outside of this system were the Belfast and Derry county boroughs.
Local government reform
The Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 replaced the existing system of 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 Fermanagh
† All district councils in Fermanagh were abolished in 1968, creating a unitary county council.
County Londonderry
‡ The Rural District Council was abolished in 1969, with the Londonderry Development Commission taking over municipal functions.
† The District was known as Londonderry until 1984.