Sligo Borough (UK Parliament constituency)

Sligo Borough
Former borough constituency
for the House of Commons
CountyCounty Sligo
BoroughSligo
1801–1870
Seats1
Created fromSligo Borough (IHC)
Replaced byCounty Sligo

Sligo Borough is a former borough constituency in Ireland, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801, and returned one Member of Parliament (MP), elected by the first past the post system of election.

Numerous elections were overturned on petition by the losing candidate; after the 1868 election was overturned, a Royal Commission examined the matter and reported that "at the last three elections of members to serve in Parliament for the Borough of Sligo, corrupt practices have extensively prevailed."[1] Parliament therefore passed the Sligo and Cashel Disfranchisement Act 1870[2] (33 & 34 Vict. c.38) which came into force on 1 August 1870. The act disfranchised Sligo Borough as well as Cashel, another Irish borough. The area of Sligo borough became part of the County Sligo constituency. In 1881 the county's MP, Thomas Sexton, introduced a private member's bill to re-enfranchise the borough, which was defeated on second reading.[3]

  1. ^ Commission 1870, p.viii
  2. ^ "Sligo and Cashel Disfranchisement Bill— [Bill 139.] Second Reading". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 16 June 1870. HC Deb vol 202 cc309-15. Retrieved 23 December 2016.; "Sligo and Cashel Disfranchisement Bill.—(No. 167.) Second Reading". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 7 July 1870. HL Deb vol 202 cc1596-1602. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  3. ^ "Sligo Borough Re-Enfranchisement Bill.— [Bill 62.]; Second Reading". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 23 March 1881. HC Deb vol 259 cc1782–5. Retrieved 23 December 2016.