Editing County Mayo (section)

==Politics==
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2022}}
===Local government and political subdivisions===
{{Main|Mayo County Council}}
[[Mayo County Council]] is the authority responsible for [[Local government in the Republic of Ireland|local government]]. As a [[county council]], it is governed by the [[Local Government Act 2001]]. The county is divided into four municipal districts of Ballina, Castlebar, Claremorris and Westport–Belmullet, each with a population of roughly 32,000 to 34,000 people. The council is responsible for [[House|housing]] and community, roads and [[transport]]ation, [[urban planning]] and development, amenity and [[culture]], and [[natural environment|environment]].

County Mayo is divided into six [[local electoral area]]s (LEAs). Councillors are elected for a five-year term.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Local election areas set to be redrawn again |url=https://www.mayonews.ie/news/32237-local-election-areas-set-to-be-redrawn-again |work=Mayo News |access-date=18 April 2020 |archive-date=30 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130071857/http://www.mayonews.ie/news/32237-local-election-areas-set-to-be-redrawn-again |url-status=live }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Local electoral area
! Number of councillors
|-
| [[Castlebar]]
| 7
|-
| [[Ballina, County Mayo|Ballina]]
| 6
|-
| [[Westport, County Mayo|Westport]]
| 4
|-
| [[Belmullet]]
| 3
|-
| [[Claremorris]]
| 6
|-
| [[Swinford]]
| 4
|}

The [[county town]] is at ''Áras an Contae'' in [[Castlebar]], the main population centre located in the centre of the county.

===National politics===
{{Main|Mayo (Dáil constituency)}}
Since 2016, Mayo has been represented on a national political level by four [[Teachta Dála|TDs]] who represent the constituency of Mayo in [[Dáil Éireann]]. Previous to 2016 the constituency had five TDs but this was reduced based on the county's current population in line with [[proportional representation]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://midwestradio.ie/index.php/news/1999-cabinet-approves-reduction-from-5-to-4-tds-in-mayo |title=Cabinet approves reduction from 5 to 4 TDs in Mayo |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=25 July 2012 |website=midwestradio.ie |access-date=18 April 2020 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The [[electoral division (Ireland)|electoral divisions]] of Cong, Dalgan, Houndswood, Kilmaine, Neale, Shrule, in the former Rural District of Ballinrobe, are in [[Galway West (Dáil constituency)|Galway West]].

====Voting patterns and political history====
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2022}} 
Historically, Mayo has tended to vote [[Fianna Fáil]], as Fianna Fáil managed to position themselves in the 20th century as the party best fit to represent farmers with small holdings, who were plentiful in Mayo. With so many of Mayo's electorate being small farmers, the county became a base for the emergence of [[Clann na Talmhan]], an agrarian party in the 1940s and 1950s. Clann an Talmhan's second leader, [[Joseph Blowick]] came from South Mayo and that is where his seat was. The party was not able to last in the long run though as it was unable to hold together its voting bloc of both small farmers in the west of Ireland and large farmers in the east.

Towards the start of the 21st century, the balance of power in Mayo began to shift towards Fine Gael, thanks in part to the emergence of [[Enda Kenny]] and [[Michael Ring]]. Kenny, who became [[Taoiseach]] in 2011, led Fine Gael to a historic victory in the [[2011 Irish general election]] which included securing four out of five available seats for his party in Mayo.

In 2020, Rose Conway-Walsh came within 200 votes of topping the poll and became the first Sinn Féin TD for Mayo since 1927, riding a nationwide surge for Sinn Féin that year.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Historic day as Conway-Walsh is elected |url=https://www.con-telegraph.ie/election2020/roundup/articles/2020/02/09/4185516-historic-day-as-conwaywalsh-is-elected/ |work=[[Connaught Telegraph]] |date=9 February 2020 |access-date=9 February 2020 |archive-date=3 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303092012/https://www.con-telegraph.ie/election2020/roundup/articles/2020/02/09/4185516-historic-day-as-conwaywalsh-is-elected/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Despite being historically the third-largest party in Ireland, [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour]] has struggled to ever make inroads into Mayo. The party has only ever had one TD for Mayo, former party leader [[Thomas J. O'Connell]], who represented South Mayo between 1927 and 1932. While Labour has not proven itself electorally successful in Mayo, Mayo has provided important members to the Labour Party. Mary Robinson from Ballina became the first-ever female President of Ireland as a Labour candidate while [[Pat Rabbitte]], originally from Claremorris, served as [[Leader of the Labour Party (Ireland)|leader of the Labour Party]] from 2002 to 2007. Serving alongside Rabbitte was [[Emmet Stagg]], one of the longest-standing Labour TDs of the modern era, himself from [[Hollymount]] not far from Claremorris.