County Tyrone is a former UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning two

Members 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 ...

(MPs).

Boundaries

This constituency comprised the whole of

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

, except the

parliamentary borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Dungannon Dungannon () is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 14,340 at the 2011 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council had its headquarters in the ...

. It returned two MPs from 1801 to 1885. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

was created on 1 January 1801. In the redistribution, which took effect in 1885, County Tyrone was divided into four single-member constituencies: East Tyrone, Mid Tyrone, North Tyrone and South Tyrone.

Politics

The constituency electorate was predominantly

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

during most of this period. Catholics were excluded from taking seats in Parliament until 1829 and there was a restrictive property based franchise. It was not until the electoral reforms which took effect in 1885 that most adult males became voters. See

Catholic emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

for further details. In these circumstances most MPs came from a limited number of

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

aristocratic and gentry families. There were few contested elections. It was only in 1880, at the end of the period when this constituency existed, that the Liberals first won a seat in the county.

Members of Parliament

''Notes:'' * Stooks Smith does not specify any party allegiances for this constituency before 1818. This does not necessarily mean that the MPs were not associated with a Party in Parliament. * From 1832 Lowry-Corry and Stewart are classified as Conservatives. * In 1847 Lowry-Corry and Hamilton contested the general election as

Peelite The Peelites were a breakaway dissident political faction of the British Conservative Party from 1846 to 1859. Initially led by Robert Peel, the former Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader in 1846, the Peelites supported free trade whilst ...

Liberal Conservatives, but were again Conservatives by 1852.

Elections

The single-member elections in this constituency took place using the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

electoral system. Multi-member elections used the

Plurality-at-large voting Plurality block voting, also known as plurality-at-large voting, block vote or block voting (BV) is a non- proportional voting system for electing representatives in multi-winner elections. Each voter may cast as many votes as the number of sea ...

system. There was no election in 1801. The representatives of the county in the former

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland ( ga, Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chamb ...

became members of the 1st

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. After 1832, when registration of voters was introduced, a turnout figure is given for contested elections. In two-member elections this is calculated by dividing the number of votes by two. To the extent that voters did not use both their votes this will be an underestimate of turnout. If the electorate figure is unknown the last known electorate figure is used to provide an estimate of turnout. Where a party had more than one candidate in one or both of a pair of successive elections change is calculated for each individual candidate, otherwise change is based on the party vote.

Elections in the 1800s

* ''Corry succeeded as 2nd

Earl Belmore Earl Belmore is a title in the Peerage of Ireland that was created in 1797 for Armar Lowry-Corry, 1st Earl Belmore, Armar Lowry-Corry, 1st Viscount Belmore, who had previously represented County Tyrone in the Irish House of Commons. He had alr ...

Elections in the 1810s

Elections in the 1820s

* ''Death of John Stewart''

Elections in the 1830s

* ''Alexander succeeded as 3rd

Earl of Caledon Earl of Caledon, of Caledon in the County of Tyrone, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1800 for James Alexander, 1st Viscount Caledon. He was a merchant who had made an enormous fortune in India. He also represented the ...

Elections in the 1840s

* ''Appointment of Lowry Corry as

Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. As that position was not always occupied, the purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requi ...

Elections in the 1850s

* ''Appointment of Hamilton as

Treasurer of the Household The Treasurer of the Household is a member of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The position is usually held by one of the government deputy Chief Whips in the House of Commons. The current holder of the office is Ma ...

'' * ''Appointment of Hamilton as

Elections in the 1860s

* ''Appointment of Lowry-Corry as Vice-President of the Committee of the Council for Education'' * ''Appointment of Hamilton as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household'' * ''Appointment of Lowry-Corry as

First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...

Elections in the 1870s

* ''Death of Lowry Corry''

Elections in the 1880s

* ''Litton appointed Land Commissioner''

References

Sources

*''The Parliaments of England'' by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), 2nd edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973) * *