Cork City was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons

Irish House of Commons

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...

 to 1800.

Boundaries and boundary changes

This constituency was the Parliamentary borough

Parliamentary borough

Parliamentary boroughs are a type of administrative division, usually covering urban areas, that are entitled to representation in a Parliament...

 of Cork

Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

 in County Cork

County Cork

County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

. It comprised the whole of the County of the City of Cork. Cork had the status of a county of itself

County corporate

A county corporate or corporate county was a type of subnational division used for local government in England, Ireland and Wales.Counties corporate were created during the Middle Ages, and were effectively small self-governing counties...

, although it remained connected with County Cork for certain purposes.

A Topographical Directory of Ireland, published in 1837, describes the area covered. This seems to be the same area used, for the Parliament of Ireland constituency, in previous centuries.

The county of the city comprises a populous rural district of great beauty and fertility, watered by several small rivulets and intersected by the river Lee and its noble estuary: it is bounded on the north by the barony of Fermoy, on the east by that of Barrymore, on the south by Kerricurrihy, and on the west by Muskerry: it comprehends the parishes of St. Finbarr, Christ-Church or the Holy Trinity, St. Peter, St. Mary Shandon, St. Anne Shandon, St. Paul and St. Nicholas, all, except part of St. Finbarr's, within the city and suburbs, and those of Curricuppane, Carrigrohanemore, Kilcully, and Rathcoony, together with parts of the parishes of Killanully or Killingly, Carrigaline, Dunbullogue or Carrignavar, Ballinaboy, Inniskenny, Kilnaglory, White-church, and Templemichael, without those limits; and contains, according to the Ordnance survey, an area of 44,463 statute acres, of which, 2396 are occupied by the city and suburbs.

The Directory also has a passage on the representative history, which includes some information that applies to the pre-1801 constituency.

The right of election was vested in the freemen of the city, and in the 40s. freeholders and £50 leaseholders of the county of the city, of whom the freemen, in 1831, amounted in number to 2331, and the freeholders to 1545, making a total of 3876; but by the act of the 2nd of Wm. IV., cap. 88 (under which the city, from its distinguished importance, retains its privilege of returning two representatives to the Imperial parliament, and the limits of the franchise, comprising the entire county of the city, remain unaltered), the non-resident freemen, except within seven miles, have been disfranchised, and the privilege of voting at elections has been extended to the £10 householders, and the £20 and £10 leaseholders for the respective terms of 14 and 20 years. The number of voters registered up to Jan. 2nd, 1836, amounted to 4791, of whom 1065 were freemen; 2727 £10 householders; 105 £50, 152 £20, and 608 forty-shilling freeholders; 3 £50, 7 £20, and 2 £10 rent-chargers; and 1 £50, 26 £20, and 95 £10 leaseholders: the sheriffs are the returning officers.

Thus, before the Union, the electorate comprised the freemen of the city (including non-residents), and the Forty Shilling Freeholders

Forty Shilling Freeholders

Forty shilling freeholders were a group of landowners who had the Parliamentary franchise to vote in county constituencies in various parts of the British Isles. In England it was the only such qualification from 1430 until 1832...

 of the county of the city. It returned two members to the Parliament of Ireland

Parliament of Ireland

The Parliament of Ireland was a legislature that existed in Dublin from 1297 until 1800. In its early mediaeval period during the Lordship of Ireland it consisted of either two or three chambers: the House of Commons, elected by a very restricted suffrage, the House of Lords in which the lords...

 to 1800.

History

In the Patriot Parliament

Patriot Parliament

The Patriot Parliament is the name given to the session of the Irish Parliament called by King James II of Ireland during the War of the Two Kings in 1689. The parliament met in one session, from 7 May 1689 to 20 July 1689, and was the only session of the Irish Parliament under King James II.The...

 of 1689 summoned by King James II

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

, Cork City was represented with two members. Following the Act of Union 1800

Act of Union 1800

The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...

 the borough retained two parliamentary seats in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

1689–1801

Election		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
1689 Patriot Parliament Patriot Parliament The Patriot Parliament is the name given to the session of the Irish Parliament called by King James II of Ireland during the War of the Two Kings in 1689. The parliament met in one session, from 7 May 1689 to 20 July 1689, and was the only session of the Irish Parliament under King James II.The...		Sir James Fitz Edmond Cotter James Fitz Edmond Cotter Sir James Fitz Edmond Cotter was a soldier, a colonial governor and the commander-in-chief of King James's forces, in the Irish Counties of Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Kerry. He was a prominent political figure in the south of Ireland and was of Royalist and Jacobite sympathies. He was also a...			John Galway
1692		Alan Brodrick Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton PC was an Irish lawyer and politician.-Background:He was the second son of Sir St John Brodrick of Ballyannan, near Midleton in County Cork, by his wife Alice , daughter of Laurence Clayton of Mallow, County Cork and sister of Colonel Randall Clayton M.P., of...			Robert Rogers
1703					Thomas Erle Thomas Erle Lieutenant-General Thomas Erle PC was an English army general and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England and of Great Britain from 1678 to 1718. He was Governor of Portsmouth and a Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance....
1710		Edward Hoare
1713					St John Brodrick
1715					Edmond Knapp
1727		Hugh Dixon			Edward Webber
1731					Jonas Morris
1735					Emanuel Pigott
1739		Matthew Deane Sir Matthew Deane, 4th Baronet Sir Matthew Deane, 4th Baronet was an Irish baronet and politician.He was the eldest son of Sir Matthew Deane, 3rd Baronet and his wife Jane Sharpe, only daughter of Reverend William Sharpe. In 1747, he succeeded his father as baronet...   Succeeded as 4th Baronet in 1747
1751		Thomas Newenham
1761		John Hely-Hutchinson			Sir John Freke, 3rd Bt
1764					William Brabazon Ponsonby William Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby William Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby , PC was a leading Irish Whig politician, being a member of the Irish House of Commons, and after 1800, of the United Kingdom parliament. Ponsonby was the son of the Hon...
1776					Richard Longfield  Declared not duly elected in 1783
1783					Augustus Louis Carre Warren
1790		Hon. John Hely-Hutchinson John Hely-Hutchinson, 2nd Earl of Donoughmore General John Hely-Hutchinson, 2nd Earl of Donoughmore GCB was an Anglo-Irish politician, hereditary peer and soldier.-Background:He was the son of John Hely-Hutchinson and the Baroness Donoughmore...			Richard Longfield
1796					William Hare William Hare, 1st Earl of Listowel William Hare, 1st Earl of Listowel , known as Lord Ennismore from 1800 to 1816 and as the Viscount Ennismore and Listowel from 1816 to 1822, was an Irish peer and Member of Parliament....
1797					Mountifort Longfield
1801 United Kingdom general election, 1801 The United Kingdom general election, 1801 was not an election as such, but the co-option of members to serve in the first Parliament to be held after the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801...		Succeeded by the Westminster constituency Cork City Cork City (UK Parliament constituency) Cork City was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1880 to 1922 it returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...