1874 United Kingdom general election in Ireland

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← 1868

31 January – 17 February 1874 (1874-01-31 – 1874-02-17)

1880 →

← outgoing members elected members →

103 of the 652 seats to the House of Commons

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Isaac Butt	Benjamin Disraeli	William Ewart Gladstone
Party	Home Rule	Conservative	Liberal
Leader since	1873	27 February 1868	3 December 1868
Leader's seat	Limerick	Buckinghamshire	Greenwich
Last election	New	39	66
Seats won	60	33	10
Seat change	60	6	56
Popular vote	90,234	91,702	39,778
Percentage	39.6%	40.8%	18.4%
Swing	39.6%	1.1%	39.5%

Results of the 1874 election in Ireland

The 1874 United Kingdom general election in Ireland produced the first major electoral appearance of the Home Rule League under chairman Isaac Butt. The party's electoral success, in which it won 60 MPs, taking control of Irish electoral politics from the previously dominant Conservative and the Liberal parties was, the beginning of a dominance that was to see the party as the Irish Parliamentary Party control the political landscape in Ireland until its wipeout in the 1918 general election.

However its success in 1874 was marred by the lack of unity within the party in the House of Commons, where many of its members in effect sat as Liberal MPs and voted against their own Irish colleagues. It was not until then chairman Charles Stewart Parnell in the early 1880s introduced a strict whip that the party began to exercise serious influence, and act as a unit, at Westminster.

Results

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% Change
	Home Rule	60	New	90,234	39.6	39.6
	Irish Conservative	33	6	91,702	40.8	1.1
	Liberal	10	56	39,778	18.4	39.5
	Other (Incl. the Catholic Union)	0	—	2,934	1.2	1.0
Total		103	2	224,648	100.0

Popular vote

Irish Conservative			40.82%
Home Rule			40.17%
Liberal			17.71%
Others			1.31%

Parliamentary seats

Home Rule			58.35%
Irish Conservative			31.42%
Liberal			9.71%

Notes

Sligo Borough and Cashel had been disenfranchised by the Sligo and Cashel Disfranchisement Act 1870, so there was a reduction in two seats from Ireland.

Sources

Craig, F. W. S. (ed.). British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987.

References

v t e United Kingdom elections in Ireland
General elections	1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918
Local elections	1899 1902 1905 1908 1911 1914 1920

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