On this episode of the Irish History Show we looked at the history of elections in Ireland. Parliament in Medieval Ireland was an event rather than an institution. The earliest known parliament was held in Castledermot in County Kildare and over the years parliament met in different towns and cities throughout the Anglo – Norman Lordship of Ireland.
We looked at how these parliaments were elected, who they represented and what type of laws they passed. We looked at Poyning’s Law and the Statutes of Kilkenny.
This first episode traced the history of elections up to the end of Williamite Wars.
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Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive.
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I enjoyed the episode and great to see a focus on this often neglected area of hsitry. When you refer, however, to there being many constituencies in which ‘no elections took place’, I think you mean ‘where no poll took place’. An uncontested election (as occured in the periods and places you were talking about) is still an election. Even today when Dáil writs are sent out to the sheriffs (who are still the returning officers!), they are only to hold a poll if by election day (not polling day) the number of validly nominated candidates exceeds the number of seats and, if they number of candidates does not, they return the writ and return the ‘succesful’ candidates as elected TDs to parliament.
Ok! Thanks a good detail to know! John D.