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Queen's County was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning two Members of Parliament 1801–1885 and one in 1918–1922.

Queen's County
Former county constituency for the House of Commons
1801–1885
Replaced by	Queen's County Leix and Queen's County Ossory
1918–1922
Replaced by	Leix–Offaly
Created from	Queen's County Leix and Queen's County Ossory

Boundaries

This constituency comprised the whole of Queen's County, now known as County Laois, except for the parliamentary borough of Portarlington 1801–1885.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1801–1885

Year	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
1801		Sir John Parnell, Bt			Charles Coote
1801, 28 December		Hon. William Wellesley-Pole	Tory[1]
1802, 5 April					Henry Parnell	Whig[1]
1802, 23 July					Sir Eyre Coote
1806, 17 February					Sir Henry Parnell	Whig[1]
1821, 27 August		Sir Charles Coote, Bt	Tory[1][2]
1832, 24 December					Patrick Lalor	Repeal Association[2]
1834, 18 December			Conservative[1][2]
1835, 20 January					Hon. Thomas Vesey	Conservative[1][2]
1837, 15 August					John FitzPatrick	Whig[1][3][4]
1841, 10 July					Hon. Thomas Vesey	Conservative[1][2]
1847, 7 August		John FitzPatrick	Whig[1][3][4]
1852, 19 July		Michael Dunne	Ind. Irish[2]		Sir Charles Coote, Bt	Conservative[2]
1857, 11 April			Whig
1859, 10 May			Liberal[2]		Francis Plunkett Dunne	Conservative[2]
1865, 22 July		John FitzPatrick	Liberal[2]
1868, 23 November					Kenelm Thomas Digby	Liberal[2]
1870, 4 January		Edmund Dease[5]	Liberal[2]
1874, 7 February			Home Rule League[2]			Home Rule League[2]
1880, 8 April		Richard Lalor	Parnellite Home Rule League[2]		Arthur O'Connor	Parnellite Home Rule League[2]
1885	Constituency divided: see Queen's County Leix and Queen's County Ossory

MPs 1918–1922

Election		Member	Party	Note
1918		Single member constituency created
	1918, 14 December 1	Kevin O'Higgins	Sinn Féin	Did not take his seat at Westminster
1922, 26 October		UK constituency abolished

Note:-

• ¹ Date of polling day. The result was declared on 28 December 1918, to allow time for votes cast by members of the armed forces to be included in the count.

Elections

Elections in the 1830s

General election 1830: Queen's County[2][1][6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Tory	Charles Coote	Unopposed
	Whig	Henry Parnell	Unopposed
	Tory hold
	Whig hold

Parnell was appointed as Secretary of State for War, requiring a by-election.

By-election, 16 April 1831: Queen's County[2][1][6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Whig	Henry Parnell	Unopposed
	Whig hold

General election 1831: Queen's County[2][1][6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Whig	Henry Parnell	393	43.9
	Tory	Charles Coote	312	34.9
	Whig	Thomas Brown Kelly	190	21.2
Turnout			c. 448	c. 37.8
Registered electors			1,184
Majority			81	9.0
	Whig hold
Majority			122	13.7
	Tory hold

General election 1832: Queen's County[2][1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Repeal	Patrick Lalor	772	35.6	New
	Tory	Charles Coote	694	32.0	−2.9
	Irish Repeal	Peter Gale	683	31.5	New
	Whig	Edward Dunne	18	0.8	−64.3
Turnout			1,380	93.8	c. +56.0
Registered electors			1,471
Majority			78	3.6	N/A
	Irish Repeal gain from Whig
Majority			11	0.5	-13.2
	Tory hold

General election 1835: Queen's County[2][1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Coote	787	28.2	+12.2
	Conservative	Thomas Vesey	695	24.9	+8.9
	Irish Repeal (Whig)	Patrick Lalor	673	24.2	−11.4
	Irish Repeal (Whig)	Robert Cassidy	631	22.6	−8.9
Majority			22	0.7	+0.2
Turnout			1,445	85.4	−8.4
Registered electors			1,692
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Conservative gain from Irish Repeal		Swing

General election 1837: Queen's County[2][1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Coote	1,224	39.4	+11.2
	Whig	John FitzPatrick	943	30.4	N/A
	Conservative	Thomas Vesey	894	28.8	+3.9
	Conservative	Sir Charles Henry Coote, 10th Baronet	40	1.3	N/A
	Whig	John Michael Henry Fock, 3rd Baron de Robeck	4	0.1	N/A
Turnout			1,885	78.6	−6.8
Registered electors			2,397
Majority			281	9.0	+8.3
	Conservative hold
Majority			49	1.6	N/A
	Whig gain from Conservative

Elections in the 1840s

General election 1841: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Coote	Unopposed
	Conservative	Thomas Vesey	Unopposed
Registered electors			1,657
	Conservative hold
	Conservative gain from Whig

General election 1847: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Thomas Vesey	Unopposed
	Whig	John FitzPatrick	Unopposed
Registered electors			1,166
	Conservative hold
	Whig gain from Conservative

Elections in the 1850s

General election 1852: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Coote	Unopposed
	Independent Irish	Michael Dunne	Unopposed
Registered electors			2,727
	Conservative hold
	Independent Irish gain from Whig

General election 1857: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Coote	1,850	41.0	N/A
	Whig	Michael Dunne	1,424	31.6	N/A
	Whig	John FitzPatrick	1,239	27.5	N/A
Majority			611	13.5	N/A
Turnout			2,257 (est)	66.0 (est)	N/A
Registered electors			3,419
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A
	Whig gain from Independent Irish		Swing	N/A

General election 1859: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Francis Plunkett Dunne	Unopposed
	Liberal	Michael Dunne	Unopposed
Registered electors			3,489
	Conservative hold
	Liberal hold

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1865: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Francis Plunkett Dunne	1,800	42.5	N/A
	Liberal	John FitzPatrick	1,515	35.8	N/A
	Liberal	Patrick McDonald	916	21.6	N/A
Majority			285	6.7	N/A
Turnout			3,016 (est)	87.7 (est)	N/A
Registered electors			3,438
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1868: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John FitzPatrick	Unopposed
	Liberal	Kenelm Thomas Digby	Unopposed
Registered electors			3,726
	Liberal hold
	Liberal gain from Conservative

Elections in the 1870s

FitzPatrick was made Lord Castletown, causing a by-election.

By-election, 4 Jan 1870: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Edmund Dease	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

4358

General election 1874: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Home Rule	Kenelm Thomas Digby	1,726	39.6	New
	Home Rule	Edmund Dease	1,639	37.6	New
	Liberal	George Dunne	993	22.8	N/A
Majority			646	14.8	N/A
Turnout			2,676 (est)	74.5 (est)	N/A
Registered electors			3,593
	Home Rule gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A
	Home Rule gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Parnellite Home Rule League	Richard Lalor	1,686	39.8	N/A
	Parnellite Home Rule League	Arthur O'Connor	1,545	36.4	N/A
	Conservative	Robert Ashworth Godolphin Cosby	899	21.2	New
	Home Rule	Kenelm Thomas Digby	109	2.6	−37.0
Majority			646	15.2	+0.4
Turnout			2,585 (est)	81.0 (est)	+6.5
Registered electors			3,190
	Home Rule hold		Swing	N/A
	Home Rule hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1910s

1918 general election: Queen's County[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Kevin O'Higgins	13,452	67.5
	Irish Parliamentary	Patrick Meehan	6,480	32.5
Majority			6,972	35.0
Turnout			19,932	76.5
Registered electors			26,063
	Sinn Féin win (new seat)

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

References

• 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 "Q"

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