County Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)

Tyrone
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1801–1885
Number of members	Two
Replaced by	East Tyrone, Mid Tyrone, North Tyrone and South Tyrone

Tyrone is a former UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning two Members of Parliament.

This constituency comprised the whole of County Tyrone, except the Parliamentary borough of Dungannon.

It returned two MPs 1801-1885. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland was created on 1 January 1801.

In the redistribution, which took effect in 1885, County Tyrone was divided into four single-member constituencies; East Tyrone, Mid Tyrone, North Tyrone and South Tyrone.

The constituency electorate was predominantly Tory/Conservative during most of this period.

Catholics were excluded from qualifying as voters until 1793 and taking seats in Parliament until 1829 and there was a restrictive property based franchise. It was not until the electoral reforms which took effect in 1885 that most adult males became voters. See Catholic emancipation for further details.

In these circumstances most Members of Parliament came from a limited number of Protestant aristocratic and gentry families. There were few contested elections.

It was only in 1880, at the end of the period when this constituency existed, that the Liberals first won a seat from the area.

Notes:

The single-member elections in this constituency took place using the first past the post electoral system. Multi-member elections used the Plurality-at-large voting system.

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