County Carlow
Formercounty constituency for theHouse of Commons
County	County Carlow
1801–1922
Seats	2 (1801–1885) 1 (1885–1922)
Created from	County Carlow
Replaced by	Carlow–Kilkenny

County Carlow was aparliamentary constituency inIreland, which from 1801 to 1885 returned twoMembers of Parliament (MPs) to theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom, and one MP from 1885 to 1922.

County Carlow had beenrepresented by two seats in theIrish House of Commons. Under theActs of Union 1800, it continued to be represented by two MPs, now in the United Kingdom House of Commons. It comprised the whole ofCounty Carlow, except for the borough ofCarlow, which was separately represented from 1801 to 1885. The borough ofOld Leighlin was disfranchised under theActs of Union 1800.

Under theRedistribution of Seats Act 1885, the borough of Carlow was disfranchised and the county was reduced to one seat.^[1] It was the only Irish county not divided for electoral purposes in the 1885 redistribution. It was thus the only Irishcounty constituency to exist at every general election from the union with Great Britain to the establishment of theIrish Free State.

It was not affected by theRedistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918. The1918 general election was used bySinn Féin as the first election toDáil Éireann.James Lennon sat as a member of theFirst Dáil, abstaining from Westminster.

Under theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920, it was combined with the constituencies ofNorth Kilkenny andSouth Kilkenny to formCarlow–Kilkenny as a 4-seat constituency for theSouthern Ireland House of Commons and a one-seat constituency at Westminster.^[2] At the1921 election for the Southern Ireland House of Commons, the four seats were won uncontested by Sinn Féin, who treated it as part of the election to theSecond Dáil. James Lennon was one of the four TDs elected for Carlow–Kilkenny. It was never used as a Westminster constituency; under theIrish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922, no writ was to be issued "for a constituency in Ireland other than a constituency in Northern Ireland".^[3] Therefore, following adissolution on 26 October 1922, no vote was held in Carlow–Kilkenny at the1922 United Kingdom general election on 15 November 1922. TheIrish Free State left theUnited Kingdom on 6 December 1922.

Notable MPs for County Carlow includedNicholas Aylward Vigors, a zoologist,John Ball, a naturalist andUnder-Secretary of State for the Colonies,Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, andJames Patrick Mahon.

Notes

On petition, Bruen and Kavanagh were unseated and a by-election was called.

After a further petition, the poll was amended and 105 votes for Vigors and Raphael were struck off. Kavanagh and Bruen were declared elected.

Kavanagh's death caused a by-election.

Vigors' death caused a by-election.

Bunbury's death caused a by-election.

Bruen's death caused a by-election.

McClintock Bunbury resigned, causing a by-election.

• Gray elects to sit forDublin St Stephen's Green

• Death of Blake

• Death of the O’Gorman Mahon

Hammond's death causes a by-election.

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(August 2008)

• List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies in Ireland and Northern Ireland
• Historic Dáil constituencies

• Salmon, Philip (1986)."County Carlow". In Thorne, R. (ed.).The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790–1820. Boydell & Brewer.ISBN 0-436-52101-6.
• Jupp, P.J. (2009)."County Carlow". In Fisher, D.R. (ed.).The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820–1832.
• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), 2nd edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
• Walker, Brian M., ed. (1978).Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.ISBN 0901714127.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 2)

• Oireachtas Members Database

• Westminster constituencies in County Carlow (historic)
• Dáil constituencies in the Republic of Ireland (historic)
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1801
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1922

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Incomplete lists from August 2008
• Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters