3-017-149 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene at the Kilkenny Election, 1865. Engraving from a sketch by Mr. Edmund Fitzpatrick. 'The Irish elections...are usually made the occasion, in almost every town, of a vehement exhibition of the popular spirit, breaking out sometimes in the form of serious tumults. The scene at the nomination of candidates for the county of Kilkenny, which took place at the Courthouse...was a very characteristic example of the disorderly behaviour of the multitude on these occasions...It was necessary to have a troop of the 12th Lancers and a company of the 53rd Regiment...drawn up in the streets during the whole morning, to be ready if called upon to assist the police. The High Sheriff, Sir Henry Marsh, with the several candidates and their friends, contrived, however, to get into the Courthouse at ten o'clock, but the mob indoors was as noisy as the mob outside...the Rev. Patrick Byrne...proposed Mr. George Leopold Bryan, as a Catholic, of Jenkinstown, a friend of the Pope, an advocate of tenant right, "the descendant of the Bryans, the descendant of the Talbots, the descendant of everything that is good, honest, and princely in this country."...the show of hands was taken, being in favour of Mr. Greene and Mr. Bryan'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.