Irish House of Commons | |
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Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Established | 1297 |
Disbanded | 31 December 1800 |
Succeeded by | House of Commons of the United Kingdom |
Leadership | |
John Foster (1785–1801)
|
|
Seats | 3001 |
Elections | |
First past the post with limited suffrage | |
Meeting place | |
Commons Chamber, Irish Houses of Parliament, Dublin (painting: The Irish House of Commons by Francis Wheatley, 1780) | |
Footnotes | |
1 In 1800
See also: House of Commons of Great Britain |
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive franchise, similar to the Unreformed House of Commons in contemporary England and Great Britain. In counties, forty shilling freeholders were enfranchised whilst in most boroughs it was either only the members of self electing corporations or a highly restricted body of freemen that were able to vote for the borough's representatives. Most notably, Roman Catholics were disqualified from sitting in the Irish parliament from 1691, even though they comprised the vast majority of the Irish population. From 1728 until 1793 they were also disfranchised. Most of the population of all religions had no vote. The vast majority of parliamentary boroughs were pocket boroughs, the private property of an aristocratic patron. When these boroughs were disfranchised at the under the Act of Union, the patron was awarded £15,000 compensation for each.
The British-appointed Irish executive, under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was not answerable to the House of Commons but to the British government. However, the Chief Secretary for Ireland was usually a member of the Irish parliament. In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker. The House of Commons was abolished when the Irish parliament merged with its British counterpart in 1801 under the Act of Union, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The House sat for the last time in Parliament House, Dublin on 2 August 1800.