'Debauchery, ill blood and perjury': Louth elections, c. 1700-c. 1835

This is the first book-length study of an Irish county constituency over a period of nearly 150 years. Its extended timespan makes it possible to trace the kaleidoscopic rise, fall and re-emergence of Co. Louth's political dynasties. The book is about elections. But for almost the whole of this period landed property, and more specifically the exclusively freehold franchise which obtained until 1832, were the basis of electoral influence. So attention must be paid to the size, value and descent of family estates, to the leasing policy of their owners, and to the success with which they responded to ever-changing and -tightening regulations governing the unique Irish system of freeholder registration. Family finances are another important consideration, because men could not fight elections if they could not afford election expenditure. The book addresses all aspects of the lives of Co. Louth's aristocracy and gentry, since electoral alliances and manoeuvrings were only one aspect of their inter-relationship. They had to co-operate with each other in county administration, which, as well as infrastructure and law and order, included architectural initiatives such as the design and building of Dundalk's iconic courthouse. There were denominational as well as political differences between and among them, and class solidarity smoothed religious antagonisms, even in the era of Catholic Emancipation. That era did, however, usher in one of the most dramatic changes of the period - the transition from a paternalistic style of politics to a new paradigm in which national issues and national party politics played a decisive part.

To compare the Hogarthian affray which took place after the formative election of 1768 with the mobbing and intimidation of the freeholders at the famous election of 1826, is to compare two different political worlds.