Irish_House_of_Commons

Irish House of Commons

Irish House of Commons

Lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800

For the current house of representatives in Ireland, see Dáil Éireann. For the body which existed between 1921 and 1922, see House of Commons of Southern Ireland.

The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive franchise, similar to the unreformed House of Commons in contemporary Great Britain. Catholics were disqualified from sitting in the Irish parliament from 1691, even though they comprised the vast majority of the Irish population.

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The Irish executive, known as the Dublin Castle administration, under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was not answerable to the House of Commons but to the British government. However, the Chief Secretary for Ireland was usually a member of the Irish parliament. In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker.

From 1 January 1801, it ceased to exist and was succeeded by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

Franchise

The limited franchise was exclusively male. From 1728 until 1793, Catholics were disfranchised, as well as being ineligible to sit in the Commons. Most of the population of all religions had no vote. In counties, forty-shilling freeholders were enfranchised while in most boroughs it was either only the members of self-electing corporations or a highly restricted body of freemen that were eligible to vote for the borough's representatives. The vast majority of parliamentary boroughs were pocket boroughs, the private property of an aristocratic patron.

Abolition

The House of Commons was abolished under the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Ireland into the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with effect from 1 January 1801. The Irish House of Commons sat for the last time in Parliament House, Dublin on 2 August 1800. One hundred of its members were designated or co-opted to sit with the House of Commons of Great Britain, forming the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The patron of pocket boroughs that were disfranchised under the Act of Union was awarded £15,000 compensation for each.[1]

Speaker of the Commons

Drawing of the front of the Irish Parliament House with the dome, seen from the street-level, in the 18th century
Main article: Speaker of the Irish House of Commons

The Speaker of the Irish House of Commons was the presiding officer of the House and its most senior official. The position was one of considerable power and prestige, and in the absence of a government chosen from and answerable to the Commons, he was the dominant political figure in the Parliament. The last Speaker was John Foster.

Constituencies

Engraving of section of the Irish House of Commons chamber by Peter Mazell based on the drawing by Rowland Omer 1767

The number of boroughs invited to return members had originally been small (only 55 Boroughs existed in 1603) but was doubled by the Stuart monarchs. By the time of the Union, there were 150 constituencies, each electing two members:[2]

Following the Act of Union, from 1801, there were 100 MPs from Ireland in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The constituencies were adapted from those in the Irish House of Commons as follows:

  • 32 county constituencies, with two MPs each;
  • 2 county borough constituencies, Cork City and Dublin City, both with two MPs;
  • 31 county borough and borough constituencies, with one MP each;
  • Dublin University, with one MP.
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Notes
  1. The date of either: the earliest Parliament at which it is known to have received a writ of election or sent representatives; or else: the earliest charter or statute granting representation. Outside the Pale, places enfranchised after the Norman conquest often had long periods unrepresented prior to the Tudor reconquest.
  2. The territory of Ards, one of the medieval sheriffdoms of the Earldom of Ulster, was included in the reconstituted County Down in 1570.
  3. "Athboy was an ancient borough by prescription with a charter dated 1410, 9 Henry IV. There were further charters of 9 Henry VII and 8 James I all confirming the liberties and privileges of the corporate or free borough."[7]
  4. "Athenry was a very old town with writs with grants and charters going back to at least the reign of Edward II. There is one for 14 October 1310 and there are a number for the reign of Richard II in the 1390s."[8]
  5. "Bannow was a borough by prescription, and no charter could be found for it in 1800"[9]
  6. "Callan was a medieval borough by prescription, with charters and grants from the reigns of Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV."[10]
  7. "Carlingford was another ancient borough, with charters going back to the reign of Edward II."[11]
  8. created as a Liberty
  9. A separate county corporate.
  10. "Cashel was a medieval foundation said to have been established in the year 1216 by Donat, Archbishop of Cashel, and incorporated under his successor, Marianus O'Brien, in 1233. It had various subsequent charters before it emerged in its modern form by a 1585 charter of 26 Eliz. I and a 1638 charter of Charles I."[13]
  11. "It was probably a borough by prescription confirmed by a 1630 charter, 5 Chas. I ..."[9]
  12. "Clonmines, like Bannow, was a borough by prescription, and no charter was available"[9]
  13. The medieval county of Connacht was subdivided in 1570 into the modern counties of Galway and Mayo.
  14. Then called Dengenechoyshe.
  15. "Downpatrick was recognised as early as the reign of Henry IV, when letters of protection were granted to the inhabitants. No charter of incorporation is extant, but it returned two MPs to the 1586-7 parliament of Elizabeth I"[16]
  16. The University was in the county of the city of Dublin. The electorate was its provost, fellows and scholars.
  17. "[I]n 1613 [James I] granted the University a further charter enabling it to return two members of parliament."[17]
  18. "Duleek was [an] ancient borough with a charter of Edward IV."[18]
  19. The area of Ferns, corresponding to the northern part of County Wexford, was briefly made a separate shire between the 1570s before merging back into Wexford in the 1600s.
  20. "Fore appears to have been a borough by prescription: the Rolls Office issued a negative certificate to the Commissioners for Union Compensation."[20]
  21. "Kinsale was a medieval borough. The earliest charter extant is that of 1589, 31 Eliz. I, which refers to a 1334 charter of 7 Edw. III"[24]
  22. Previously incorporated as Derry, 11 July 1604.
  23. "Rathcormack was ... incorporated by charter, which was produced at the Union. Some boroughs, particularly those incorporated before or during the early years of the seventeenth century ... "[28]
  24. "No charter is extant for this borough"[29]
  25. In the county of the city of Kilkenny rather than county Kilkenny.
  26. "St Canice was a very ancient borough and thought to have been from remote antiquity part of the See of Ossory. In 1606 a patent appears to have been granted by James I, whereby Irishtown was to be a corporation ..., but, the muniments of the temporalities of the Bishops of Ossory having been lost during the troubles, in 1678 Charles II made a new grant of a corporation" "[30]
  27. "Swords had the distinction of being the most notorious borough in the Irish Parliament. Its charter was lost. The memorial presented by John Beresford and Francis Synge declared that it was 'an ancient borough by prescription'; another memorial declared that it had been enfranchised from 'time immemorial'. The portreeve, James Stewart, said 'that the said corporation is an open borough by Charter' dated 11 April, 5 James II - i.e. 1690! Most memorialists simply stressed that it was of great antiquity."[31]
  28. "Taghmon was a borough by prescription; no charter could be found for it in 1800. It is mentioned in 1642, so it must have existed before then."[32]
  29. It did not return members in 1613 and returned two members in 1634.[33]
  30. Cross Tipperary last returned MPs in 1634, and was definitively merged with Tipperary in 1716.
  31. The medieval liberty of Ulster was subdivided in 1570 into the modern counties of Antrim and Down.
  32. The county of Wicklow created in 1577 seems not to have functioned and ceased to exist some time after 1586[37]
Henry Boyle, speaker between 1733 and 1756
John Ponsonby, speaker between 1756 and 1771
Edmund Perry, speaker between 1771 and 1785
John Foster, last speaker of the Irish House of Commons (1785–1800)

Means of resignation

Until 1793 members could not resign their seats. They could cease to be a member of the House in one of four ways:

In 1793 a means for resignation was created, equivalent to the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead as a means of resignation from the British House of Commons. From that date, Irish members could be appointed to the Escheatorship of Munster, the Escheatorship of Leinster, the Escheatorship of Connaught or the Escheatorship of Ulster. Possession of one of these Crown offices, "office of profit under the Crown" with a 30-shilling salary, terminated one's membership of the House of Commons.

Notable members

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Porritt, Edward (1963). The Unreformed House of Commons. Parliamentary Representation Before 1832. CUP Archive. pp. 185–187. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  2. [2]
    Johnston-Liik 2006, p. 222.
  3. [3]
    Fiants Ire. Eliz. No 1530
  4. [4]
    Hardiman, James (1842). "Appendix III: The lordes spirituall and temporall, counties, cytties, and borough-townes, as are answerable to the Parlyament in this realme of Ireland ; and souche as weare sommoned unto the Parlyament holden before the right honorable Sir John Perrot, knyght, Lord Deputie Generall of the realme of Ireland, xxvi. die Aprilis, anno regni Regine nostre Elizabeth, vicesimo septimo. A. D. 1585.". A Statute of the fortieth Year of Edward III., enacted in a Parliament held in Kilkenny, A. D. 1367, before Lionel Duke of Clarence, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Now first printed from a MS.in the Library of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth. With a Translation and Notes. Tracts relating to Ireland. Vol. II. Dublin: Irish Archaeological Society.
  5. [5]
    Moody, T.W.; Martin, F.X.; Byrne, F.J. (1991). Early Modern Ireland, 1534-1691. Oxford University Press. p. 166. ISBN 9780198202424.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Inquisitionum in Officio Rotulorum Cancellariae Hiberniae Asservatarum Repertorium (Repertory of the Inquisitions of the Chancery of Ireland) Volume II, page xix 'An Order for the division, setting out and appoyntinge of the boundes, lymytts and circuits of sixe severall sheires or countyes within the pvince of Ulster within this realme of Ireland, viz. the countye of Tyron, the countye of Donnyngall, the countye of Fermanaghe, the countye of Colrane, the countye of Armaghe and the countye of Monohon ... the firste of September anno dei 1585, annoque d[omi]n[a]e Regin[a]e Elizabeth', 27mo'
  6. [6]
    Moody, T.W. (1939). "The Irish Parliament under Elizabeth and James I". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 45 (6): 72–76.
  7. [7]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 301)
  8. [8]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 240)
  9. [9]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 356)
  10. [10]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 253)
  11. [11]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 289)
  12. [12]
    Betham, William (1830). Dignities, Feudal and Parliamentary. London: Thomas and William Boone. p. 262.
  13. [13]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 327)
  14. [14]
    "Turlough Lynagh (O'Neill)'s pretence to harm ... the new made county of Cavan" Proceedings and orders of the Chancellor, Council and Gentlemen of Meath and Dublin, August 21 1579, Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland, of the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, Volume 2, 1574-1585 page 184
  15. [15]
    "O'Reilly's country erected into the County of Cavan" Lord Deputy Perrot to Walsyngham, 16 November 1584, Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland, of the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, Volume 2, 1574-1585 page 537
  16. [16]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 221)
  17. [17]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 231)
  18. [18]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 303)
  19. [19]
    Moody, T.W.; Martin, F.X.; Byrne, F.J. (1984). A New History of Ireland, Vol IX, Maps, Genealogies, Lists. Oxford University Press. p. 108.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  20. [20]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 352), citing Report of the Commissioners of Union Compensation - Cities, Towns and Boroughs, p. 47
  21. [21]
    "Orders to be observed by Sir Nicholas Malby, Knight, for the better government of the Province of Connaght" Printed in O'Flaherty's Chorographical Description of West Or H-Iar Connaught: Written A.D. 1684 ed. Hardiman, P. 304
  22. [22]
    An Act "whereby the King and Queen's Majesties, and the Heires and Successors of the Queen, be entituled to the Counties of Leix, Slewmarge, Irry, Glinmaliry, and Offaily, and for making the same Countries Shire Grounds." 303/554 - 3 & 4 Phil & Mar, c.2 (1556). The Act was repealed in 1962.
  23. [23]
    ”Falkiner, Caesar Litton (1904). Illustrations of Irish history and topography, mainly of the seventeenth century. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. pp. 118–9. ISBN 1-144-76601-X.
  24. [24]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 209)
  25. [25]
    Fiants Ire. Eliz. No 1486
  26. [26]
    Maginn, Christopher (2012). William Cecil, Ireland, and the Tudor State. Oxford. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-19-969715-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  27. [27]
    "The Annaley, formerly governed by O’Farrale Bane and O’Farrale Boy, is erected into a shire called Longford." Lord Chancellor and Council to the Queen, March 23, 1571,Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland, of the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, Volume 1, 1509-1573, page 440
  28. [28]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 305)
  29. [29]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 211)
  30. [30]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 259)
  31. [31]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 235)
  32. [32]
    (Johnston-Liik 2002, p. 360)
  33. [33]
    Members of Parliament - Return (in part) to an Order of the House of Lords, dated 13th July 1877
  34. [34]
    Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 (294/554) 34 Henry VIII cap 1 (Ire) An Act for the division of Methe into two shires.
  35. [35]
    Falkiner, Caesar Litton (1904). Illustrations of Irish history and topography, mainly of the seventeenth century. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. p. 117. ISBN 1-144-76601-X.
  36. [36]
    Fiants Ire. Eliz. No 3003, 22 March 1577
  37. [37]
    Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X.; Byrne, F. J. (1984). A New History of Ireland, Vol IX, Maps, Genealogies, Lists. Oxford University Press. p. 108.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  38. [38]
    Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X.; Byrne, F. J. (1991). Early Modern Ireland, 1534-1691. Oxford University Press. p. 166. ISBN 9780198202424.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Sources

  • Mary Frances Cusack, Illustrated History of Ireland, Project Gutenberg
  • Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary, ed. (2002). History of the Irish parliament, 1692–1800. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation.
  • Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary (2006). MPs in Dublin: Companion to the History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation. ISBN 1903688604.
  • McGrath, Charles Ivar (2000). The making of the 18th century Irish Constitution: Government, Parliament and the Revenue, 1692-1714. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-554-1.
  • Magennis, Eoin (2000). The Irish Political System 1740-1765. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-484-7.
  • Moody/Vaughan, A new history of Ireland, Oxford, 1986, ISBN 0-19-821742-0 and ISBN 0-19-821739-0
  • Return of the name of every member of the lower house of parliament of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with name of constituency represented, and date of return, from 1213 to 1874. C. Vol. 69-I. HMSO. 1878.
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