Richard Boyle, 4th Earl of Shannon (12 May 1809 – 1 August 1868), styled Viscount Boyle until 1842, was a British politician of the Whig party. He served as Member of Parliament for County Cork from 1830 to 1832.^[1][2]

Boyle was the son of Henry Boyle, 3rd Earl of Shannon and his wife, Sarah, daughter of John Hyde of Castle Hyde^[1][2] and his wife, Sarah Burton.^[3] Hyde was a descendant of the Hyde family of Denchworth in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire).

Boyle was elected a Member of Parliament for County Cork in the 1830 United Kingdom general election and re-elected in the 1831 United Kingdom general election.^[4]

The Reform Act 1832 (including the Representation of the People (Ireland) Act 1832) increased the number of individuals entitled to vote, increasing the size of electorate by 50–80%, and allowing a total of 653,000 adult males (around one in five) to vote, in a population of some 14 million.^[5]

In the 1832 general election which followed, Boyle failed to be re-elected, defeated by Feargus O'Connor, a leader of the Chartist movement, and Garrett Standish Barry.^[4] Barry was a Catholic, one of the first one elected to Parliament following the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829.^[6] On 22 April 1842, his father died and Boyle succeeded him. He held no other political office until his death.^[1][2]

On 28 May 1832, Lord Shannon married Emily Henrietta Seymour in London. She was a daughter of Lord George Seymour-Conway and Isabella Hamilton.^[7] His father-in-law was a son of Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford and his wife Lady Isabella Fitzroy.^[8] His mother-in-law was a daughter of the Reverend George Hamilton, Canon of Windsor (1718–1787) and his wife Elizabeth Onslow.^[9]

They had two sons:^[7]

• Henry Bentinck Boyle, 5th Earl of Shannon (22 November 1833 – 8 February 1890).
• Frederick James Boyle (16 September 1835 – 10 October 1861).