James Delahunty

James Delahunty (24 July 1808 – 15 June 1885)[1][2] was an Irish Liberal Party politician from Waterford.

Vanity Fair caricature of Delahunty by James Tissot

Born in Waterford, and educated at St. John's College, Waterford,[1] Delahunty was chairman of the Waterford and Central Ireland Railway Company, and director of the Kilkenny Junction Railway Company.[1]

Involved in local politics for some decades,[1] he was elected at the 1868 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Waterford City.[3] He later lost his seat in the 1874 general election, when both the city's seats were won by candidates of the Home Rule Party.[3]

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.[4] This time Delahunty was himself a Home Rule candidate, and he defeated his Liberal opponent by a margin of more than 3:1.[5]

Delahunty "was laughed at because of the dullness of his oratory",[6] and in 1878 caused some amusement in the Commons by spreading on his bench sundry personal items taken from his bag in a search for the notes for his speech on the Money Laws (Ireland) Bill.[7][8] An 1879 description described Delhunty as "a genial, warm-hearted Irishman who is generally liked in the House".[9] He died in 1885, aged 76.

References
  1. Robert Henry Mair, ed. (1872). Debrett's House of Commons, and the Judicial Bench. London: Dean & Son. p. 66.
  2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)
  3. 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.
  4. "No. 24409". The London Gazette. 26 January 1877. p. 369.
  5. Walker, op. cit. page 319
  6. Power, Patrick C. (1990). History of Waterford: City and County. Mercier Press. p. 177. ISBN 9780853429456.
  7. Lucy, H. W. (July 1897). "The Queen's Parliaments". North American Review. 165 (488): 99–111: 104–5.
  8. "[BILL 56] SECOND READING". HC Deb. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 20 March 1878. pp. vol 238 cc1699–706. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  9. "Our Home Correspondence". Adelaide Observer. 9 August 1879. p. 17 – via Trove (National Library of Australia). Mr. Delahunty [...], the member for Waterford is a genial, warm-hearted Irishman who is generally liked in the House, and a few friends [...] support [his bill] just out of good fellowship for its promoter
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