Limerick
in
the
General
Election
1885
by James Doherty
he general election
of 1885 was an
important milestone
in the history of lrish
nationalism. It
marked the high
point of Parnell's
leadership of nationalist Ireland. It also
marked the half-way point in his leader-
ship of the lrish Parliamentary Party.
The party of
61 members which he had
been leading since May 1880, was not
completely his; solid supporters num-
bered no more than 30'. After the gen-
eral election of 1885, when the party
returned with 85 lrish seats, it was his
to command. (Parnell in fact com-
manded 86 seats in the house of com-
mons because T.P. O'Connor, who was
returned for the Scottish Division of
Liverpool, voted with the Parnellites).
This election also gave Parnell the
balance of power in the House of Com-
mons where his 86 seats was the exact
difference between the Liberals (335)
and the Conservatives (231) and lrish
Conservatives (18). Whoever formed a
government would need Parnell's sup-
port. This election result precipitated
Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule.
In contesting the election the Parnel-
lite organisation, the National League,
undoubtedly derived benefit from the
new Representation of the People Act
(December 1884) which, by granting
the right to vote to all householders in
counties and boroughs and to lodgers
in the counties, raised the electorate
from some 200,000 to over 600,000.
The agricultural labourers now had the
vote as well as the working class. In
Limerick city the electorate rose from
1,934 (1880) to 6,010 (1885) and in the
county from 6,072 (1880) to 16,301
(1885)~. This dramatic increase in the
electorate frightened the lrish Tories
who vievved it as a further democratisa-
tion of the lrish representation3. Parnell
had firm control now over "an
unsophisticated electorate4", and he
publicly demonstrated how firm that
control was. This was as true of
Limerick as elsewhere.
This was also the first general elec-
tion contested under the Redistribution
of Seats Act (1885). The two Limerick
constituencies (City and County) which
had returned two MPS each since 1832
were abolished. In their stead there
were now three constituencies return-
ing one member each: Limerick City
with an electorate of 6,010, Limerick
East (8,474) and Limerick West (7,827).
Nationally, the 1885 general election
returned 103 members for 101 con-
stuencies. 21 members were returned
without a contest, of whom 19 were
Home Rulers, two of them in Limerick
East and West5.
The following table shows the extent
of the Nationalist ~ictory:~.
gate, usually a priest, took the chair for
a public session. At this stage both the
selected candidate and those who had
"withdrawn their names in the interest
of unity" were "eul~gised"~.
The three outgoing members of par-
liament for Limerickwere all Home Rul-
ers
-
Edward McMahon, who had been
returned in the by-election of 1883 for
the city, and E.J. Synan and W.H. O'Sul-
livan for the county. Neither Synan,
who represented the constituency
since 1859, nor O'Sullivan, holding the
seat since 1874 and a Parnell supporter
Party No. of Candidates Returned
Nationalists 90 85
Conservatives 67 16
Liberals 16
-
Loyalists 6
-
Independents
4
-
Indep. Cons. 3
2
Indep. Nats. 1
-
187 103
The National League, as will be seen,
was strong in Limerick city and county.
As Parnell's constituency organisation,
although only three years old, it was a
highly organised
'
electioneering
machine. While it appeared to be
democratic it was in fact "an autocrati-
cally controlled body7." It was domi-
nated by a 30 man committee which
had never been elected, half of whose
members were probably nominated by
Parnell himself, and whose powers
were never defined. Members of this
committee who visited Limerick during
the course of the election campaign
were Tim Healy, Charles Dawson, T.D.
Sullivan, ~dhn Redmond and John
O'Connor. Another member of the
committee, William Abraham, was a
candidate in Limerick West. The role of
the National League government from
Dublin was clearly seen in the attempt
to find a candidate to run in Limerick
city.
Limerick, both city and county,
proved typical of the manner in which
candidates for the nationalist party
were selected: the delegates met in pri-
vate session underthe chairmanship of
a visiting M.P. They selected a candi-
date and then issued an "official" ver-
sion to the press. After that, some dele-
when returned in 1880, appears to have
been considered for the election of
1885. There was no doubt of a
nationalist victory in Limerick, simply a
question of who would be nominated
and by how much he would win.
The County Convention was held in
the Theatre Royal on Friday, 6
November. Described as "the largest
and most important gathering of
Priests and People held at any such
assemblage yet formed in Irelandug, it
clearly caused headachesfor reporters.
The nationalist
Munster News
claimed
that 80 branches of the League were
represented by 320 delegates; in addi-
tion, they counted 160 priests who, as
honorary members, were entitled to
attend without membership cards".
The Conservative
Limerick Chronicle
reported that 84 branches were rep-
resented by 363 delegates and that 90
priests attended", and it is interesting
to note that these figures were well ab-
ove the normal average of 150 laymen
and 50 priests at such
convention^.'^.
The MPS present were John Red-
mond, John O'Connor and T.D. Sulli-
van, who took the chair. The priests
included two noted land agitators, Fr.
Eugene Sheehy of Bruree, who- was
elected Honorary Secretary, and Fr.
Nineteen
