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Irish House of Commons

For the current house of representatives in Ireland, see Dáil Éireann. For the body which existed between 1921 and 1922, see House of Commons of Southern Ireland.

The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive franchise, similar to the unreformed House of Commons in contemporary Great Britain. Catholics were disqualified from sitting in the Irish parliament from 1691, even though they comprised the vast majority of the Irish population.

Irish House of Commons
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
History
Established1297
Disbanded1 January 1801
Succeeded byHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom
Leadership
John Foster (1785–1800)
Seats300[a]
Elections
Plurality block voting with limited suffrage
Meeting place
The Irish House of Commons (by Francis Wheatley, 1780)
Footnotes
  1. ^ In 1800.

The Irish executive, known as the Dublin Castle administration, under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was not answerable to the House of Commons but to the British government. However, the Chief Secretary for Ireland was usually a member of the Irish parliament. In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker.

From 1 January 1801, it ceased to exist and was succeeded by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

Franchise

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The limited franchise was exclusively male. From 1728 until 1793, Catholics were disfranchised, as well as being ineligible to sit in the Commons. Most of the population of all religions had no vote. In counties, forty-shilling freeholders were enfranchised while in most boroughs it was either only the members of self-electing corporations or a highly restricted body of freemen that were eligible to vote for the borough's representatives. The vast majority of parliamentary boroughs were pocket boroughs, the private property of an aristocratic patron.

Abolition

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The House of Commons was abolished under the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Ireland into the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with effect from 1 January 1801. The Irish House of Commons sat for the last time in Parliament House, Dublin on 2 August 1800. One hundred of its members were designated or co-opted to sit with the House of Commons of Great Britain, forming the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The patron of pocket boroughs that were disfranchised under the Act of Union was awarded £15,000 compensation for each.[1]

Speaker of the Commons

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Drawing of the front of the Irish Parliament House with the dome, seen from the street-level, in the 18th century
Main article: Speaker of the Irish House of Commons

The Speaker of the Irish House of Commons was the presiding officer of the House and its most senior official. The position was one of considerable power and prestige, and in the absence of a government chosen from and answerable to the Commons, he was the dominant political figure in the Parliament. The last Speaker was John Foster.

Constituencies

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Main article: Constituencies of the Irish House of Commons
 
Engraving of section of the Irish House of Commons chamber by Peter Mazell based on the drawing by Rowland Omer 1767

The number of boroughs invited to return members had originally been small (only 55 Boroughs existed in 1603) but was doubled by the Stuart monarchs. By the time of the Union, there were 150 constituencies, each electing two members by plurality block voting; an elector could vote for one or two of the candidates, with the two receiving most votes being returned. The constituencies had different franchises as follows: [2]

Following the Act of Union, from 1801, there were 100 MPs from Ireland in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The Irish constituencies at Westminster were a subset of those in the Irish House of Commons as follows:

  • the 32 counties and two most populous county borough constituencies, Cork City and Dublin City, retained two MPs each;
  • the 6 other county boroughs, the university, and the 25 most populous boroughs were reduced to one MP each;
  • the 84 least populous Irish parliamentary boroughs were disfranchised after the Union.
 
Henry Boyle, speaker between 1733 and 1756
 
John Ponsonby, speaker between 1756 and 1771
 
Edmund Perry, speaker between 1771 and 1785
 
John Foster, last speaker of the Irish House of Commons (1785–1800)

Means of resignation

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Until 1793 members could not resign their seats. They could cease to be a member of the House in one of four ways:

In 1793 a means for resignation was created, equivalent to the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead as a means of resignation from the British House of Commons. From that date, Irish members could be appointed to the Escheatorship of Munster, the Escheatorship of Leinster, the Escheatorship of Connaught or the Escheatorship of Ulster. Possession of one of these Crown offices, "office of profit under the Crown" with a 30-shilling salary, terminated one's membership of the House of Commons.

Notable members

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Porritt, Edward (1963). The Unreformed House of Commons. Parliamentary Representation Before 1832. CUP Archive. pp. 185–187. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  2. ^ Johnston-Liik 2006, p. 222.

Sources

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  • Mary Frances Cusack, Illustrated History of Ireland, Project Gutenberg
  • Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary, ed. (2002). History of the Irish parliament, 1692–1800. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation.
  • Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary (2006). MPs in Dublin: Companion to the History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation. ISBN 1903688604.
  • McGrath, Charles Ivar (2000). The making of the 18th century Irish Constitution: Government, Parliament and the Revenue, 1692-1714. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-554-1.
  • Magennis, Eoin (2000). The Irish Political System 1740-1765. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-484-7.
  • Moody/Vaughan, A new history of Ireland, Oxford, 1986, ISBN 0-19-821742-0 and ISBN 0-19-821739-0
  • House of Lords (1878). Return of the name of every member of the lower house of parliament of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with name of constituency represented, and date of return, from 1213 to 1874. C. Vol. 69-I. HMSO.
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