This thesis is a study ofKildare County Council from its inception in 1899. It begins with an outline of the Kildare County Grand Jury which preceded the county council as the body responsible for administering local government in the county. A comparison is made between the social, economic and political backgrounds of the members of the Grand Jury and the county council. The thesis then provides a narrative of the principal political and administrative issues which preoccupied Kildare County Council during the years covered by the study. The changing attitudes and responses ofthe county councillors through the years of the Great War, the Easter Rising, the growth of Sinn Fein, the war of independence and the civil war is noted. This narrative is continued through the early years of the Free State when the Labour Party and farmers' representative vied for political dominance on the council. Among the administrative issues the council undertook were the setting up of Agricultural and Technical Committees, the establishment of university scholarship schemes, the provision of care for victims of tuberculosis as well as a committee to manage food production during the Great War. The thesis also includes an analysis of the financial management ofKildare County Council during the period, and particularly of the rates levied by the council on agricultural land and on domestic houses. An assessment is made of the council's efficiency in this and in its other administrative duties. There are detailed accounts given of all the contested elections for council seats throughout the period as well as a discussion of the relative lack of contests for seats. Also included is a full Jist of all the county councillors in each of the electoral areas into which the county was divided.