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The January 1908 Irish representative peer election was held to fill a vacancy among the 28 Irish representative peers at the time elected for life to the British House of Lords, with ballots sent by post to the 134 Irish peers eligible to vote. The winner was Lord Curzon (shown), the former viceroy of India, who had never been to Ireland and owned no Irish lands. A former MP, he ran as a way of returning to parliament after being denied an earldom by the prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. As he had never asked the House of Lords to affirm his right to vote in Irish representative peer elections, as required to vote in them, some stated Curzon was ineligible for election. Despite a late start and opposition to him as non-Irish, Curzon led with two votes more than Lord Ashtown, who had two more than Lord Farnham, but the official return noted Curzon was not among those who could vote. When the House of Lords convened, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Loreburn, declared Curzon the winner. (Full article...)