Youghal (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Youghal was a parliamentary borough represented in the Irish House of Commons until its abolition on 1 January 1801. It was a corporation with burgesses and freemen.

History
In 1700 the borough was under the patronage of Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington. It passed through his granddaughter Charlotte Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington to her husband William Cavendish, later Duke of Devonshire, who by 1758 had entrusted it to Henry Boyle, 1st Earl of Shannon. Following the Act of Union 1800 the borough sent one MP to Westminster, still under the patronage of the Earls of Shannon.

A Topographical Directory of Ireland, published in 1837, describes the parliamentary history of the borough of Youghal in County Cork: "The borough appears to have exercised the elective franchise by prescription, as, though no notice of that privilege appears in any of its charters, it continued to send two members to the Irish parliament from the year 1374 till the Union, since which period it has returned one member to the imperial parliament; the right of election was vested solely in the members of the corporation and the freemen, whether resident or not; but by the act of the 2nd of Wm. IV., cap. 88, it has been granted to the £10 householders, and the non-resident freemen have been disfranchised. A new boundary has been drawn round the town, including an area of 212 statute acres."

Elections

 * 1613 June 7: Edmund Coppinger 62 votes; John Forrest 53; Thomas Ronayne 12; Henry Gosnold 6.
 * 1628 October 9: William Bluet and Edward Gough returned.
 * 1634 June/July: Edward Gough 59; Theobald Ronane 41; Edward Stoute 21; Christmas Harford 5.
 * 1639 February 25: Edward Gough 51; Theobald Ronaine 44; William Gough (son of Richard) 21; Nicholas Forest 10.
 * 1695
 * 1703
 * 1713
 * 1715
 * 1719 July 20: (by-election on the death of Francis Palmes) Henry Rugge 88 votes; Sir John Osberne, baronet, 60.
 * 1727
 * 1761
 * 1768
 * 1776
 * 1783
 * 1790
 * 1797
 * 1800 January: Robert Uniacke re-elected after appointment as Master General of the Ordnance of Ireland.