Dundalk (UK Parliament constituency)

For other uses, see Dundalk (disambiguation).

Dundalk
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	County Louth
Borough	Dundalk
1801–1885
Seats	1
Created from	Dundalk
Replaced by	North Louth

Dundalk was a parliamentary borough constituency in Ireland, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801, replacing the Dundalk constituency in the Parliament of Ireland.

Boundaries

This constituency was the Parliamentary borough of Dundalk in County Louth.

History

The constituency was two-member Borough constituency in the Parliament of Ireland, which became a single member United Kingdom constituency when the union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801.

The first member of the United Kingdom House of Commons was to be selected from the area's two MPs in the Irish Parliament, by drawing lots. However both members resigned so the seat could not be filled by co-option and a by-election was necessary. The by-election took place on 28 February 1801. Isaac Corry, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, was elected the first United Kingdom MP for Dundalk.

Corry was associated with what came to be called the Tory Party after the death of William Pitt the Younger in 1806. Up until the extension of the franchise in 1832, the borough was strongly Tory in representation. No Tory or Conservative was elected after 1832.

Dundalk had a population of 9,256 in 1821. Walker records that the electorate in 1831 numbered 36. The population in 1831 had increased to 10,750. All the elections in the borough between 1801 and 1831 were unopposed returns.

The 1832 general election was conducted on a new franchise. The registered electorate, under the new system, numbered 318. At the borough's first contested election of the century 295 people voted (Liberal 167, Conservative 128).

From 1832 to 1885 the constituency returned members who were Liberals or who belonged to a series of Irish-based groups (the Repeal Association, the Independent Irish Party and the Home Rule League). The Liberals elected in Dundalk tended to have nationalist leanings.

The last MP for the constituency was the Liberal lawyer-politician, Charles Russell. An Irish-born Catholic, Russell was to be the lead Counsel for Charles Stewart Parnell during the inquiry into allegations which had appeared in The Times . In March 1887 it had been suggested that Parnell was complicit in the murders of the Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Permanent Under-Secretary for Ireland, T. H. Burke. Letters were produced to support the allegations. As a result of Russell's cross-examination of Richard Pigott, the forger of the letters, the Commission of Enquiry vindicated Parnell.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [1]	Party	Note
	1801, 1 January	seat vacant	...	Both members in the Irish Parliament had resigned
	1801, 28 February	Rt Hon. Isaac Corry	Tory
	1802, 15 July	Richard Archdall	Tory
	1806, 22 November	John Metge	Tory	Resigned (appointed Escheator of Munster)
	1807, 20 January	Josias Porcher	Tory	1807, May: Also returned by and elected to sit for Old Sarum
	1807, 4 August	Patrick Bruce		Resigned (appointed Steward of the Manor of East Hendred)
	1808, 27 July	Thomas Hughan		Died
	1812, 21 February	Frederick Trench	Tory
	1812, 26 October	John Metge	Tory	Resigned (appointed Escheator of Munster)
	1813, 2 January	Lyndon Evelyn	Tory
	1818, 29 June	Gerrard Callaghan	Tory
	1820, 24 March	John Metge	Tory	Resigned (appointed Escheator of Munster)
	1820, 29 June	George Hartopp	Tory	Died
	1824, 5 May	Sir Robert Inglis, Bt	Tory
	1826, 12 June	Charles Barclay	Tory [2]
	1830, 14 August	Hon. John Hobart Caradoc	Whig [3]
	1831, 13 May	James Edward Gordon	Tory [4]
	1832, 19 December	William O'Reilly	Whig [3]
	1835, 14 January	William Sharman Crawford	Radical [3] [5] [6] [7]
	1837, 2 August	Thomas Nicholas Redington	Whig [3] [8]	Appointed Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant
	1846, 31 July	Daniel O'Connell Jnr	Repeal Association [9]
	1847, 6 August	Charles MacTavish	Repeal Association [9]	Unseated on petition
	1848, 20 March	William Torrens McCullagh	Whig [10] [11] [12]	Declared duly elected, on petition
	1852, 15 July	Sir George Bowyer, Bt	Independent Irish Party
	1857, 2 April		Whig [13] [14]
	1859, 2 May		Liberal
	1868, 21 November	Philip Callan	Liberal	Re-elected as a Home Rule League candidate
	1874, 5 February		Home Rule League	Also returned by County Louth, but elects to sit here
	1880, 2 April	Charles Russell	Liberal	Last MP from the constituency
1885		Constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1830s

General election 1830: Dundalk ^{[9] [3] [4]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Whig	John Hobart Caradoc	Unopposed
Registered electors			c. 32
	Whig gain from Tory

General election 1831: Dundalk ^{[9] [3] [4]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Tory	James Edward Gordon (MP)	Unopposed
Registered electors			36
	Tory gain from Whig

General election 1832: Dundalk ^{[9] [3]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Whig	William O'Reilly	167	56.6
	Tory	John Jocelyn	128	43.4
Majority			39	13.2
Turnout			295	92.8
Registered electors			318
	Whig gain from Tory

General election 1835: Dundalk ^{[9] [3]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Radical	William Sharman Crawford	Unopposed
Registered electors			376
	Radical gain from Whig

General election 1837: Dundalk ^{[9] [3]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Whig	Thomas Nicholas Redington	Unopposed
Registered electors			557
	Whig gain from Radical

Elections in the 1840s

General election 1841: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Thomas Nicholas Redington	Unopposed
Registered electors			538
	Whig hold

Redington resigned after being appointed Under-Secretary for Ireland, causing a by-election.

By-election, 31 July 1846: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Repeal	Daniel O'Connell	Unopposed
	Irish Repeal gain from Whig

General election 1847: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Repeal	Charles MacTavish	124	50.6	N/A
	Whig	William McCullagh	121	49.4	N/A
Majority			3	1.2	N/A
Turnout			245	50.2	N/A
Registered electors			488
	Irish Repeal gain from Whig

Upon petition, MacTavish was unseated and McCullagh was declared elected on 20 March 1848

Elections in the 1850s

General election 1852: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Irish	George Bowyer	Unopposed
Registered electors			267
	Independent Irish gain from Irish Repeal

General election 1857: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	George Bowyer	133	77.3	New
	Independent Irish	John MacNamara Cantwell	39	22.7	N/A
Majority			94	54.6	N/A
Turnout			172	67.2	N/A
Registered electors			256
	Whig gain from Independent Irish		Swing	N/A

General election 1859: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Bowyer	Unopposed
Registered electors			293
	Liberal hold

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1865: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Bowyer	Unopposed
Registered electors			287
	Liberal hold

General election 1868: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Philip Callan	164	43.2	N/A
	Liberal	Charles Russell	143	37.6	N/A
	Liberal	George Bowyer	72	18.9	N/A
	Independent	William Robson	1	0.3	New
Majority			21	5.6	N/A
Turnout			380	85.0	N/A
Registered electors			447
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1870s

General election 1874: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Home Rule	Philip Callan	257	53.3	New
	Liberal	Charles Russell	225	46.7	−51.0
Majority			32	6.6	+1.0
Turnout			482	82.4	−2.6
Registered electors			585
	Home Rule gain from Liberal		Swing	+0.5

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: Dundalk ^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Charles Russell	263	54.1	+7.4
	Home Rule	Philip Callan	214	44.0	−9.3
	Conservative	James Davis	9	1.9	New
Majority			49	10.1	N/A
Turnout			486	86.3	+3.9
Registered electors			563
	Liberal gain from Home Rule		Swing	+8.4

Notes

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 4)
2. Salmon, Philip; Spencer, Howard. "BARCLAY, Charles (1780-1855), of 43 Grosvenor Place, Mdx". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
3. Smith, Henry Stooks (1842). The Register of Parliamentary Contested Elections (Second ed.). Simpkin, Marshall & Company. p. 226.
4. Salmon, Philip. "Dundalk". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
5. "William Sharman Crawford (1781–1861; Irish politician)". Manuscripts and Special Collections. University of Nottingham . Retrieved 1 July 2018.
6. Lee, Sidney (1888). "Crawford, William Sharman"  . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 13. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
7. Navickas, Katrina (2016). Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789–1848. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 172. ISBN   978-0-7190-9705-8.
8. Mosse, Richard Bartholomew (1838). The Parliamentary Guide: a concise history of the Members of both Houses, etc. p. 217. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
9. Walker, B.M., ed. (1978). Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. pp. 213, 275–276. ISBN   0901714127.
10. "Bell's Weekly Messenger" . 14 August 1847. p. 2. Retrieved 30 September 2018– via British Newspaper Archive.
11. "Cork Examiner" . 23 July 1847. p. 3. Retrieved 30 September 2018– via British Newspaper Archive.
12. "The Pilot" . 21 July 1847. p. 4. Retrieved 30 September 2018– via British Newspaper Archive.
13. "The Evening Freeman" . 17 April 1857. p. 1. Retrieved 30 September 2018– via British Newspaper Archive.
14. "Dundalk Democrat and People's Journal" . 25 April 1857. p. 4. Retrieved 30 September 2018– via British Newspaper Archive.

References

• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), 2nd edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
• Walker, Brian M., ed. (1978). Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922. Royal Irish Academy.