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.
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.
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:
^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.
^The territory of Ards, one of the medieval sheriffdoms of the Earldom of Ulster, was included in the reconstituted County Down in 1570.
^"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]
^"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]
^"Bannow was a borough by prescription, and no charter could be found for it in 1800"[9]
^"Callan was a medieval borough by prescription, with charters and grants from the reigns of Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV."[10]
^"Carlingford was another ancient borough, with charters going back to the reign of Edward II."[11]
^"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]
^"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"[17]
^The University was in the county of the city of Dublin. The electorate was its provost, fellows and scholars.
^"[I]n 1613 [James I] granted the University a further charter enabling it to return two members of parliament."[18]
^"Duleek was [an] ancient borough with a charter of Edward IV."[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.
^"Fore appears to have been a borough by prescription: the Rolls Office issued a negative certificate to the Commissioners for Union Compensation."[22]
^ abcIt was represented in the parliaments in the late 14th century
^"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"[27]
^"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 ... "[31]
^"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" "[33]
^"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."[34]
^"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."[35]
^It did not return members in 1613 and returned two members in 1634.[36]
^Cross Tipperary last returned MPs in 1634, and was definitively merged with Tipperary in 1716.
^ abThe medieval liberty of Ulster was subdivided in 1570 into the modern counties of Antrim and Down.
^The county of Wicklow created in 1577 seems not to have functioned and ceased to exist some time after 1586[40]
Henry Boyle, speaker between 1733 and 1756John Ponsonby, speaker between 1756 and 1771Edmund Perry, speaker between 1771 and 1785John 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:
William Conolly: Speaker from 1715 to 1729. Conolly was notable not just for his role in parliament but also for his great wealth that allowed him to build one of Ireland's greatest Georgian houses, Castletown House.
Nathaniel Clements: 1705–77 Government and Treasury Official, Managed extensive financial functions from 1720 to 1777[dubious – discuss] on behalf of the government, de facto minister for finance 1740–77, extensive property owner and developer. A major influence on the architecture of Georgian Dublin and the Irish Palladian country house.
John Philpot Curran: Orator and wit, originator of the phrase "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty".
^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)
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. ISBN1903688604.
McGrath, Charles Ivar (2000). The making of the 18th century Irish Constitution: Government, Parliament and the Revenue, 1692-1714. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN1-85182-554-1.
Magennis, Eoin (2000). The Irish Political System 1740-1765. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN1-85182-484-7.
House of Lords (1878). 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.
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