The municipal year has been in use as a concept since at least 1555,[1] and has also been used – very occasionally – by town councils in the United States, though much less so now.
Large-scale street games were played by children (imprisonment and subsequent rescue, or "clouting out", with knotted ropes, of young people was the source of the name), and the free distribution of apples and penny coins were also customs.
[5][6] In the Irish city of Galway, in the Middle Ages, the newly appointed or -elected officers would, by convention, provide an enormous feast for the town's "more distinguished citizens", while others took to the streets and made merry.
The Local Government Act 1972 Section 99 requires that an annual meeting must take place between 8 and 21 days of the election of councillors, and outside of election years the annual meeting can take place on any day in March, April or May.
[9] Section 23 (1) requires that "the election of the chairman shall be the first business transacted at the annual meeting of a principal council".