Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to amend certain Acts of the Parliament of Ireland relative to the Election of Members to serve in Parliament, and to regulate the Qualification of Persons entitled to vote at the Election of Knights of the Shire in Ireland.
Citation10 Geo. 4. c. 8
Dates
Royal assent13 April 1829
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Parliamentary Elections (Ireland) Act 1829, also known as the Irish Franchise Act 1829,[1] was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1829. It restricted the franchise to elect knights of the shire (Members of Parliament) in county constituencies in Ireland by raising the property threshold from the ownership or rent of a forty-shilling freehold to the British standard of a ten pound freehold. It ruled that:

... no Person shall be admitted to vote at any Election of any Knight of the Shire to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom for any County in Ireland (save as hereinafter is provided), unless such Person shall have an Estate of Freehold, in Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments in such County, of the clear Yearly Value of Ten Pounds at the least ...[2]

The legislation received the royal assent on the same day as the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 permitted Catholics to sit in parliament.

The impact of the fivefold increase in the property threshold has been estimated as a drop in the Irish electorate from 215,000 to 40,000. The Representation of the People (Ireland) Act 1832, increased the Irish electorate to around 60,500.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ Farrell, Stephen (2009). "IV. Ireland". In Fisher, D. R. (ed.). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820-1832. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521193146. Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  2. ↑ "Parliamentary Elections (Ireland) Act 1829". vLex. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  3. ↑ Johnston, Neil (1 March 2013). "The History of the Parliamentary Franchise (Research Paper 13-14)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2023.

Further reading

  • McElroy, M. (2007). "The Impact of the Parliamentary Elections (Ireland) Act (1829) on the Irish Electorate, c. 1829–32". In Blackstock, A.; Magennis, E. (eds.). Politics and Political Culture in Britain and Ireland, 1750–1850. pp. 24–40.


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