Bandon (UK Parliament constituency)


Bandon was a Parliamentary constituency covering the town of Bandon in County Cork, Ireland. From 1801 to 1885 it elected one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Bandon had been one of the borough constituencies that had had two representatives in the Parliament of Ireland before 1801. The area retained one member after the Act of Union, until the borough was disenfranchised in 1885.

Boundaries

This constituency was the parliamentary borough of Bandon, County Cork.
In 1832 a new boundary was formed for electoral purposes closely encircling the town, and comprising an area of. The exact definition, contained in the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832, was as follows.
"From the Point at which the Eastern Road to Macroom leaves the old or Northern Road to Cork, in a straight Line in a Westerly Direction, to the North-western Corner of Mr. Swanson's Garden; thence along the Wall of the said Garden to the South-western Corner thereof; thence in a straight Line across the River Bandon, and across the Enniskane Road, to the Point at which the old Road to Clonakilty is joined by a Bye Road which runs thereto from the new Road to Clonakilty; thence along the said Bye Road to the Point at which the same joins the new Road to Clonakilty; thence towards Bandon, along the new Road to Clonakilty, to that Point thereof which is nearest to the Northern Pillar of the Gate of Mr. M'Creight's House; thence in a straight Line to the said Northern Pillar; thence in a straight Line across the centre Kilbritten Road to the Point at which the Eastern Kilbritten Road is joined by a small Bye Road running Westward to the Fields, about Three hundred and thirty Yards to the South of the Point at which the Eastern Kilbritten Road leaves the Innishannon Road; thence in a straight Line to the Southern Corner, on the Ballinade Road, of the Premises of Mr Ormond's Distillery; thence, Eastward, along the Boundary of the Premises of Mr. Ormond's Distillery to the Point at which the same meets the Southernmost Road to Innishannon; thence in a straight Line across the River Bandon to the Point at which the old Innishannon Road is joined by a Bye Road which runs North-west in the Direction of the Kilbrogan Chapel; thence in a straight Line to the Northern Pillar of a Gateway on the old Cork Road, about Four hundred and thirty Yards to the North of the Point at which the same leaves the Innishannon Road; thence in a straight Line to the Point first described."

History

Local government

The borough, which existed as a local government unit until it was abolished by the Municipal Corporations Act 1840, had an oligarchic constitution.
The corporation of the borough was formally known as "The Provost, Free Burgesses, and Commonalty of the Borough of Bandon-Bridge" and consisted of a provost, 12 burgesses, and an unlimited number of freemen. The common council, a body not mentioned in the borough charter, was constituted by a by-law of the corporation made in 1621. It consisted of twelve members, who were elected from the freemen by the corporation at large, as vacancies arose. The burgesses were chosen from the common council, on vacancies occurring, by the provost and burgesses.
The provost was elected annually from and by the burgesses at midsummer, and took office at Michaelmas. The freedom was acquired by birth for the eldest son of a freeman, and nomination of the provost, who during the year of his office had the privilege of naming one. The freemen were elected by a majority of the body at large assembled in a court of D'Oyer Hundred; neither residence nor any other qualification was considered necessary.

Parliamentary constituency

Before 1832 the Parliamentary franchise for this constituency was extremely restricted. Only the provost and the twelve burgesses were enfranchised. The population of the town, in 1821, was 10,179. All the elections in this period were unopposed returns; except for one election in 1831, where only ten voters participated and eleven votes were cast.
Stooks Smith gives an account of this contested election. It was the second by-election of 1831. As his book is out of copyright, the whole passage is set out below.
The franchise was expanded in 1832 because of the Great Reform Act, when the £10 householders were added to the electorate and the registration of voters was introduced. In the election later that year, there were 266 registered electors in Bandon and 233 votes were cast in the general election. It appears, from the list of MPs and the report of the 1831 election, that the choice of the borough electorate both before and after 1832 was influenced by aristocratic patrons like the Duke of Devonshire and the Bernard family. If a Bernard was not elected then quite prominent political figures, notably the future Whig leaders George Tierney and Lord John Russell, were sometimes returned for the borough.
In 1868 the incumbent Bernard MP was defeated by William Shaw, standing in the Liberal interest. Later in his career Shaw was an associate of Isaac Butt in the Home Rule League. After Butt's death in 1879, Shaw became the parliamentary leader of Irish Nationalism until he was replaced by Charles Stewart Parnell in 1880.
The constituency was disenfranchised in 1885. The area was then represented in Parliament as part of South East Cork, one of seven constituencies created from the partition of County Cork constituency.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1860s