North Kilkenny 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 ...

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 ...

, 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

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 ...

. 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 1885 to 1922.

Boundaries and Boundary Changes

This constituency comprised the northern part of

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...

. Prior to the 1885 general election the area was part of the Kilkenny County constituency. In 1918 the constituency was redrawn as a result of the abolition of the Kilkenny City constituency. 1885–1918: The baronies of Crannagh, Fassadinin, Galmoy and Shillelogher, and that part of the barony of Gowran not contained within the South Kilkenny constituency. 1918–1922: The rural districts of Castecomer, Kilkenny and Urlingford No. 1, and the urban district of Kilkenny. The constituency ceased to be entitled to be represented in the UK

on the

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of 26 October 1922, shortly before the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...

came into legal existence on 6 December 1922.

First Dáil

The constituency was, in Irish republican theory, entitled to return one

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...

(known in English as a Deputy) in 1918 to serve in 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 ...

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 Unite ...

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 Gri ...

used the

UK general election This is a list of United Kingdom general elections (elections for the UK House of Commons) since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801–1802 Parliament had been elected to the former Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of Ireland, ...

in 1918 to elect the Dáil. The revolutionary body assembled on 21 January 1919. The list of members read out on that day included everyone elected in Ireland. Only the Sinn Féin Deputies participated in the Dáil, but the other Irish MPs could have done so if they had chosen to adhere to the Republic. The First Dáil, passed a motion at its last meeting on 10 May 1921, the first three parts of which make explicit the republican view. # That the Parliamentary elections which are to take place during the present month be regarded as elections to Dáil Éireann. # That all deputies duly returned at these elections be regarded as members of Dáil Éireann and allowed to take their seats on subscribing to the proposed Oath of Allegiance. # That the present Dáil dissolve automatically as soon as the new body has been summoned by the President and called to order. 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 elected ...

first met on 16 August 1921, thereby dissolving the First Dáil. Sinn Féin had decided to use the polls 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 wit ...

and the

House of Commons of Southern Ireland The Parliament of Southern Ireland was a Home Rule legislature established by the British Government during the Irish War of Independence under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was designed to legislate for Southern Ireland,"Order in Cou ...

as an election for the Irish Republic's

. No actual voting was necessary in

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as all the seats were filled by unopposed returns. Except for Dublin University all other constituencies elected Sinn Féin TDs. As with the First Dáil, the other Deputies could have joined the Dáil if they chose. From the

Third Dáil The Third Dáil was elected at the general election held on 16 June 1922. This election was required to be held under the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed on 6 December 1921. It first met on 9 September and until 6 December 1922, it was the Provisio ...

onwards the Dáil represented only the twenty-six counties which formed the

. In the 2nd and 3rd Dála Kilkenny North formed part of the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency.

Politics

The constituency was a safe nationalist/republican seat throughout its existence, from 1885 to 1922. Only three of the thirteen elections held in the seat (nine at general elections and four at by-elections) were contested. A Conservative in 1885 (who polled only 174 votes) and a Unionist in 1892 (who received a not much larger 314 votes), were the only candidates from other political traditions to contest the seat. The most hotly contested election was the

1890 North Kilkenny by-election The 1890 North Kilkenny by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the United Kingdom House of Commons constituency of North Kilkenny on 22 December 1890. It arose as a result of the death of the sitting member, Edward Marum of the Iri ...

. This was the first parliamentary election to take place in Ireland after the Irish Parliamentary Party split into Parnellite and Anti-Parnellite factions, in early December 1890. The two factions each nominated a candidate. The Anti-Parnellite won, on a 2,527 to 1,362 vote. All elections in the constituency after its first decade of existence, starting with the

1895 United Kingdom general election The 1895 United Kingdom general election was held from 13 July to 7 August 1895. William Gladstone had retired as Prime Minister the previous year, and Queen Victoria, disregarding Gladstone's advice to name Lord Spencer as his successor, ap ...

, were uncontested. The Sinn Féin candidate, future

President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State The president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State ( ga, Uachtarán ar Ard-Chomhairle Shaorstát Éireann) was the head of government or prime minister of the Irish Free State which existed from 1922 to 1937. He was the chairman of t ...

W. T. Cosgrave (6 June 1880 – 16 November 1965), made an unopposed gain from the IPP in 1918.

Members of Parliament

Notes:- * ¹ Not an election, but the date of a party change. The Irish Parliamentary Party had been created in 1882, on the initiative of

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...

's Irish National League. Both the IPP and the INL split into Parnellite and Anti-Parnellite factions, in December 1890. The Parnellites remained members of the

Irish National League The Irish National League (INL) was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded on 17 October 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell as the successor to the Irish National Land League after this was suppressed. Whereas the Land League h ...

after the split and the Anti-Parnellites organised the

Irish National Federation The Irish National Federation (INF) was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded in 1891 by former members of the Irish National League (INL), after a split in the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) on the leadership of Charles S ...

in March 1891. The two organisations and the

United Irish League The United Irish League (UIL) was a nationalist political party in Ireland, launched 23 January 1898 with the motto ''"The Land for the People"''. Its objective to be achieved through agrarian agitation and land reform, compelling larger grazi ...

merged in 1900, to re-create the Irish Parliamentary Party. * ² Date of polling day. The result was declared on 28 December 1918, to allow time for votes cast by members of the armed forces to be included in the count (in contested seats).

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

Devlin was also elected as MP for Belfast West and instead opted to sit as an MP there, prompting a by-election.

Elections in the 1910s

References

* *

External links

* https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Kilkenny North Westminster constituencies in County Kilkenny (historic) Dáil constituencies in the Republic of Ireland (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1922 Historic constituencies in County Kilkenny