1885 County Antrim by-election

UK parliamentary by-election October 2013 December 2023 A by-election was held in the constituency of County Antrim, Ireland, on Thursday 21 May 1885. Vacancy The by-election was held to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the sitting Conservative MP James Chaine on 4 May 1885, at the age of only 43.The Times, 5 May 1885 p10 Chaine had been one of the MPs for the constituency since 1874.Vincent Stenton McCalmont's Parliamentary Poll Book of Election Results 1832–1918 I Harvester Press 1971 6 Candidates The Conservatives selected Robert Torrens O'Neill as their candidate.The Times, 11 May 1885 p7 O'Neill, who was 40 years old at the time of the by-election, was the third son of Lord O'Neill and thus a member of the prominent Irish Chichester family headed by the Marquess of Donegall.Who was Who, OUP online 2007 The Liberals chose William Pirrie Sinclair, a 38-year-old, Belfast born merchant and ship owner with business interests in Glasgow, Liverpool and elsewhere.The Times, 8 July 1886 p10 The campaign O'Neill announced his candidature with the issue of an address to the electors of Antrim, calling himself a Constitutional candidate. He said he would try to advance the interests of the tenant farmers and would support measures to enable them to buy their farms on easy terms. He also pledged strenuously to oppose the admission of atheists to Parliament. Sinclair had two main campaigning themes. He favoured some reform of Irish government but opposed Home Rule. He also took a stand against the policies of his own government in opposing the case for coercion laws, for example those which allowed imprisonment without trial or rent boycotts and those giving government officers the power to change trial venues or appoint special juries.Stephen Ball (ed.), Dublin Castle and the First Home Rule Crisis: The Political Journal of Sir George Fottrell, 1884–1887; Royal Historical Society, 2008 p97 & n and 98 Result Sinclair gained the seat from the Conservatives with a majority of 139 votes. This seemed to come as something of a surprise to both sides as the Conservatives had been reported as confident and the Liberals rather despondent.The Times, 23 May 1885 p12 The defeat was taken as a bad omen for the Conservatives in view of the forthcoming general election. One commentator put forward the possible explanation that the Conservatives had not taken the election as seriously as they should, given that the general election would soon be upon them. There was a reduced turnout over the previous 1880 general election and it was felt that the voters too were underwhelmed by the prospect of going to the polls twice in quick succession. The Liberals believed that their candidate's stand on coercion was an important factor. Thomas Alexander Dickson Liberal MP for Tyrone said he had spoken at one of Sinclair's campaign meetings and had been enthusiastically received on this issue.Stephen Ball (ed.), Dublin Castle and the First Home Rule Crisis: The Political Journal of Sir George Fottrell, 1884–1887; Royal Historical Society, 2008 p97 The Times was sceptical on this as an explanation, which, it reported, could have been down to numerous factors; but it did point to the Coercion question as one which could prove fruitful for the Irish Parliamentary Party at the forthcoming general election and problematic for the Liberals.The Times, 23 May 1885 p11 This certainly seemed to prove true. The Liberals failed to win any seat at the 1885 general election in what became Northern Ireland in 1921, while the Conservatives won sixteen and the Nationalists eight. One psephologist has noted that the fact that the Liberal Party was not in a majority in the House of Commons was caused by the activities of the Irish Nationalists. Charles Stewart Parnell had advised his supporters to vote Conservative if there were no Irish Nationalist candidates running and that it is almost certain the Nationalists caused the loss of at least five, or perhaps seven or more Liberal seats.Michael Kinnear The British Voter: An Atlas and Survey since 1885 Cornell University Press 1968 13 County Antrim by-election, 21 May 1885 Liberal Party (UK) William Pirrie Sinclair 3,971 50.9 +2.6 Conservative Party (UK) Robert Torrens O'Neill 3,832 49.1 -2.6 139 1.8 N/A 7,803 66.7 -16.5 Liberal Party (UK) Conservative Party (UK) +2.6 Later developments The County Antrim constituency itself was abolished for the 1885 election and divided into four single-member divisions. Sinclair stood in North Antrim in a three-cornered contest but was not successful.Vincent and Stenton (eds.), McCalmont's Parliamentary Poll Book of Election Results 1832–1918; Harvester Press, 1971 p3 of Part II The defeated O'Neill was luckier. He tried his hand in the new seat of Mid Antrim where he beat Sinclair's by-election helper Thomas Dickson.Vincent and Stenton (eds.), McCalmont's Parliamentary Poll Book of Election Results 1832–1918; Harvester Press, 1971 p4 of Part II Sinclair did however return to the House of Commons at the 1886 general election as Liberal Unionist Party member for Falkirk Burghs in the central Scottish Lowlands.F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918; Macmillan, 1974 p502 See also List of United Kingdom by-elections (1868–1885) References Category:1885 elections in the United Kingdom Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Antrim constituencies Category:19th century in County Antrim Category:May 1885 in the United Kingdom Category:1885 elections in Ireland