Carlow was a

parliamentary constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

in Ireland, represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Great B ...

. It returned one

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) from 1801 to 1885.

History and boundaries

This constituency was the parliamentary borough of

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...

. It succeeded the two-seat constituency of

in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

. Its one MP was chosen by lot to sit in the

First Parliament of the United Kingdom In the first Parliament to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801, the first House of Commons of the United Kingdom was composed of all 558 members of the former Parliament of Great Britain and 100 of the members ...

in 1801. The borough was defined by the

Parliamentary Boundaries (Ireland) Act 1832 The Parliamentary Boundaries (Ireland) Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which defined the boundaries of the 33 parliamentary boroughs List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies in Ireland and ...

as: It was disfranchised by the

Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equal ...

, becoming part of the constituency of

.First Schedule Part I: Boroughs to cease to exist as such.

Members of Parliament

Notable MPs for Carlow included F. J. Robinson, later

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

as Viscount Goderich, the zoologist

Nicholas Aylward Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Ireland, Irish zoologist and politician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the quinarian system. Early life Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow on 17 ...

, and the historian and writer John Dalberg-Acton, later known as Lord Acton.

Elections

Elections in the 1830s

Maule was appointed as Baron of the Exchequer in England, requiring a by-election. After meeting 59 times, an election committee amended the poll to 160 for Gisborne and 159 for Bruen and, in July 1839, Gisborne was declared elected.

Elections in the 1840s

Elections in the 1850s

Sadleir was appointed a

Lord Commissioner of the Treasury In the United Kingdom there are at least six Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, serving as a commission for the ancient office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the ...

, requiring a by-election.

Elections in the 1860s

Elections in the 1870s

Elections in the 1880s

References

* * * {{Carlow constituencies Westminster constituencies in County Carlow (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1801 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1885 Carlow, County Carlow