The 1916 North Louth by-election was held on 24 February 1916. The

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

was held due to the death of the incumbent Irish Parliamentary MP,

Augustine Roche Augustine Roche (1849 – 7 December 1915) was an Irish Parliamentary Party politician from Cork. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1905 to 1910, and from 1911 until his death. Early life Roche was born Michael Augustine Roche, to Michae ...

. It was won by the Irish Parliamentary candidate Patrick Whitty. Whitty received some Unionist support, while Hamill received separatist support.Maume (1999), p.170 Whitty was aged just 21, becoming the youngest MP at the time. He was the nephew of

Richard Hazleton Richard Hazleton (5 December 1879 – 26 January 1943) was an Irish nationalist politician of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for North Galway from 1906 to 1918, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the Unit ...

, elected MP for the seat in December 1910 but subsequently unseated on petition (although Hazleton continued to sit for North Galway where he had been elected at the same election). Whitty was imposed on the constituency of North Louth by the Party leadership in what was widely ridiculed as an act of nepotism.

D.P. Moran David Patrick Moran ( ga, Dáithí Pádraig Ó Móráin; 22 March 1869 – 31 January 1936), better known as simply D. P. Moran, was an Irish journalist, activist and cultural-political theorist, known as the principal advocate of a specifical ...

's paper the ''Leader'' referred to him as "Whitty the Kid" and published a cartoon in which his victory procession included a pram labelled "The Next Candidate".

Result

References

1916 elections in Ireland 1916 elections in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Louth constituencies {{Ireland-UK-Parl-by-election-stub