James Delahunty

Vanity Fair caricature of Delahunty by James Tissot

James Delahunty (1808 – 15 June 1885)^[1] was an Irish Liberal Party politician from Waterford.

He was elected at the 1868 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Waterford City,^[2] but was defeated at the 1874 general election, when both the city's seats were won by candidates of the Home Rule Party.^[2]

He returned to the House of Commons three years later, when he was elected at a by-election in January 1877 as MP for County Waterford following the death of Sir John Esmonde, Bt.^[3] This time Delahunty was himself a Home Rule candidate, and he defeated his Liberal opponent by a margin of more than 3:1.^[4]

Delahunty "was laughed at because of the dullness of his oratory".^[5] In 1878 he caused amusement in the Commons by spreading on his bench sundry personal items taken from his bag in a long search for the notes for his speech on the Money Laws (Ireland) Bill.^[6][7]

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)
2. Walker, Brian M., ed. (1978). Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801–1922. A New History of Ireland. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. p. 318. ISBN 0901714127. ISSN 0332-0286.
3. The London Gazette: no. 24409. p. 369. 26 January 1877. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
4. Walker, op. cit. page 319
5. Power, Patrick C. (1990). History of Waterford: City and County. Mercier Press. p. 177. ISBN 9780853429456.
6. Lucy, H. W. (July 1897). "The Queen's Parliaments". North American Review 165 (488): 99–111: 104–5.
7. "[BILL 56] SECOND READING". HC Deb. Hansard. 20 March 1878. pp. vol 238 cc1699–706. Retrieved 16 March 2016.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by James Delahunty