The following list of names of allegedly recalcitrant Catholic electors of the Borough of Newry in the 1832 election to Parliament (Imperial) was printed and produced to punish, by intimidation, those who had failed to wrest the seat from the agents of the landlord, the Earl of Downshire.
Denis Maguire, owner of the Bridge Street Spinning Mill failed to get elected. However three years later, the desired result was forthcoming when Denis Caulfield Brady won the seat for the Catholics of the town.
The Public Notice was headed as follows :
A List of the
C A T H O L I C
Electors of the Borough of Newry
Who betrayed the cause of Independence and their country, at the election of December 1832 and voted (or were ready to come up and vote ‘if wanted’) for a sprig of the ‘most noble’ and most stainless house of Downshire (of the validity of whose claim to those titles, the practices which its agents had recourse to on the above occasion have now fully enabled public opinion rightly to judge); and against DENIS MAGUIRE, the man of the people’s choice and A MAN FROM AMONG THE PEOPLE’S RANKS of which latter description of men freely chosen, and of which description alone, the House of Commons, to be really such, ought to consent: aye, and will yet consent, though tyrants and baser renegades may band together and do their worst.
|
David Barry |
Lisdrumliska |
Carpenter |
|
John Boyd |
Pound St |
Card Maker |
|
David Hynes alias Brady |
Dublin Bridge |
Blacksmith |
|
Bernard Bennett |
High St |
Shoemaker |
|
Bernard Callaghan |
Lower Commons |
Labourer |
|
Patrick Callaghan |
Lower Commons |
Labourer |
|
Thomas Cullen |
New Street |
Labourer |
|
Francis Cosgrave |
Mill Street |
Dyer |
|
Bernard Calliley |
Mill Street |
Schoolmaster |
|
Hugh Casey |
Cowan Street |
Brickmaker |
|
Bernard Campbell |
Lower Commons |
Stone Mason |
|
Patrick Cosgrave |
Chapel Street |
Mealmonger |
|
Thomas Cunningham |
Pound Street |
Stone Mason |
|
Patrick Conroy |
Hill St |
Hairdresser |
|
Edward Cardiff |
Canal Street |
Journeyman Chandler |
|
William Curran |
Queen St |
Labourer |
|
Owen Connolly |
Queen Street |
Blacksmith |
|
Terry Duffy |
Bridge Street |
Householder |
|
Patrick Duffy |
Ballinacraig |
Labourer |
|
Owen Downey |
Lower Commons |
Labourer |
|
Patrick Dullaghan |
Ballinacraig |
Labourer |
|
John Doyle |
Kiln Street |
Cooper |
|
Patrick Mooney |
Church Street |
Brogue Maker |
|
Edward Flanagan |
Boat Street |
Publican |
|
Simon Freeman |
Commons |
Butcher |
|
Owen Fallone |
Temple Hill |
Labourer |
|
Andrew Fegan |
Ballinacraig |
Lighterman |
|
Owen Fegan |
Church St |
Labourer |
|
Hugh Fegan |
Mill Street |
Leather Cutter |
|
John Flynn |
High Street |
Labourer |
|
Edward Fegan |
Chapel Street |
Lighterman |
|
Roger Gynne |
Lower Water Street |
Publican |
|
John Garvey |
Lower Commons |
Labourer |
|
Matthew Griffin |
Lower Commons |
Stone Mason |
|
Charles Hull |
Temple Hill |
Labourer |
|
Bernard Hughes |
Canal Street |
Servant |
|
James Neale |
Needham Street |
Sawyer |
|
John Hanna |
Pound Street |
Carman |
|
William Hollywood |
Drumalane |
Lighterman |
|
Edward Hillen |
High Street |
Stone Mason |
The list of names of Catholic Newry electors (1/2 : second to follow) of 1832 reproduced here is interesting to us from several angles (which will be discussed in a subsequent article) but not from the point of view of its originally published purpose.
This was the first election following the granting of Catholic Emancipation and all of these people would, had they cast their vote, have been first-time voters.
It is important to remember that there was neither universal franchise nor secret ballot. Indeed the list was produced, unashamedly, to finger those Catholics of Newry, who when given the vote for the first time, either failed to use it or voted against their own best interests.
But the latter is not necessarily the case. Great pressure was brought to bear by supporters of the landlord’s (Downshire : i.e. Hill) candidate, Knox: bribes were given or promised, threats were made. Businessmen and artisans depended on the largesse of landlords/debtors/patrons who might withdraw their custom or organise boycotts.
Of course in a largely Catholic town, if it got out that Catholics had failed to support their own candidate, business was again likely to suffer. No doubt, that was what was hoped for by the authors of this list.
The establishment triumphed in this and the following election – the Catholic candidate Denis Maguire being defeated – but in 1835, a relative, Denis Caulfield Brady succeeded, becoming the first Catholic in many generations to represent Newry and the first to go to the Imperial Parliament in London.
The establishment fought back in the press in equally dirty fashion.
This is the next article but one!
… more later …