West Cork | |
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Former County constituency for the House of Commons |
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1885–1922 | |
Number of members | One |
Created from | County Cork |
West Cork, a division of County Cork, was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1885 to 1922 it returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Until the 1885 general election the area was part of the Cork County constituency. From 1922 it was not represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom UK Parliament, as it was no longer in the UK.
This constituency comprised the baronies of Bantry, Bear and West Carbery (West Division) and part of the barony of West Carbery (East Division).
During World War I the major political parties observed an electoral truce and most elections were uncontested with the incumbent party nominating a successor who was returned unopposed. Unusually, when Gilhooly died, the seat was contested by three candidates none of whom had official recognition from the Irish Nationalist political organisations but all of whom supported the broad Nationalist agenda. The by-election has its place in history as the first after the Easter Rising, the last in which the Irish Parliamentary Party captured a seat, the effective self-inflicted demise of the All-for-Ireland League and, in general, a pivotal point in the transition from one era to another. It was also the last great clash between the political rivals William O'Brien's All-for-Ireland League and John Redmond's Irish Parliamentary Party.