Waterford City was a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

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 southeast

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

Boundaries and boundary changes

As the constituency for 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 ...

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. Waterford City and County Council is the local authority for t ...

, it returned one MP 1801–1832, two in 1832–1885 and one 1885–1922. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801. In 1918, the boundary was redefined to exclude the Kilculliheen area which had been transferred to County Kilkenny under the 1898 Local Government (Ireland) Act. It was defined as consisting of the county borough of Waterford and the

district electoral division An electoral division (ED, ) is a legally defined administrative area in the Republic of Ireland, generally comprising multiple townlands, and formerly a subdivision of urban and rural districts. Until 1996, EDs were known as district electora ...

s of Ballynakill, Kilbarry, Killoteran and Waterford Rural in the rural district of Waterford. Following the dissolution of parliament in 1922 the area was no longer represented in the

United Kingdom House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

Politics

The constituency was a predominantly

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

area in 1918. The seat was contested by William Redmond, the son of the IPP leader John Redmond whom he replaced in the Waterford City constituency in a by-election held in March 1918. In the general election of December 1918, it was the only Irish seat the IPP won outside Ulster.

The First Dáil

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...

contested the general election of 1918 on the platform that instead of taking up any seats they won in the

United Kingdom Parliament 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 supremac ...

, they would establish a revolutionary assembly in Dublin. In republican theory every MP elected in Ireland was a potential Deputy to this assembly. In practice only the Sinn Féin members accepted the offer. The revolutionary

First Dáil The First Dáil ( ga, An Chéad Dáil) was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 1919 to 1921. It was the first meeting of the unicameral parliament of the revolutionary Irish Republic. In the December 1918 election to the Parliament of the United ...

assembled on 21 January 1919 and last met on 10 May 1921. The First Dáil, according to a resolution passed on 10 May 1921, was formally dissolved on the assembling of the

Second Dáil The Second Dáil () was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 16 August 1921 until 8 June 1922. From 1919 to 1922, Dáil Éireann was the revolutionary parliament of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic. The Second Dáil consisted of members elect ...

. This took place on 16 August 1921. In 1921 Sinn Féin decided to use the UK authorised elections for the

Northern Ireland House of Commons The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created under the ''Government of Ireland Act 1920''. The upper house in the bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished wi ...

and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as a poll for the

Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( ga, Poblacht na hÉireann or ) was an unrecognised revolutionary state that declared its independence from the United Kingdom in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland, but by ...

. This area, in republican theory, was part of the five-seat Dáil constituency of Waterford–Tipperary East.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1801–32

MPs 1832–85

Representation increased to two members

MPs 1885–1918

Representation reduced to one member''

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 thei ...

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.

Elections in the 1830s

Wyse was appointed as a Commissioner of the Treasury, requiring a by-election.

Elections in the 1840s

On petition, Christmas and Reade were unseated and Wyse and Barron were declared elected on 13 June 1842. O'Connell resigned by accepting the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1850s

Elections in the 1860s

Blake resigned after he was appointed inspector of Irish fisheries, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1870s

Barron was unseated on petition, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1890s

Power died, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1910s

References

Sources

*GITHENS-MAZER, Jonathan. ''Myths and Memories of the Easter Rising, Cultural and Political Nationalism in Ireland''. Dublin and Portland, OR: Irish Academic Press, 2006, 238p. *''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) * * * *

External links

History of Parliament: Constituencies 1790–1820

Notes and References

{{County Waterford constituencies Westminster constituencies in County Waterford (historic)

Waterford City "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1801 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1922 History of Waterford (city) Politics of Waterford (city)