Administration and politics

Abstract

Abstract Almost all Irishmen who claimed gentility shared an absorbing interest in politics. The great majority of the population, engaged in a strenuous never-ending endeavour to secure subsistence, was of course not in touch with the methods by which political ideas and news were communicated, newspapers, pamphlets, county meetings, clubs and dinner tables. But in addition to the great landed families, a substantial number of middle-class men, minor landowners, large farmers, professional men and businessmen, as freemen, freeholders or burgesses, possessed a share, albeit a minute one, in political power. Even if, as was probable, his vote had to be cast in accordance with the declared will of a landlord or borough owner, an elector could pride himself on being a member of a political elite. Theoretically, he exercised independently a privilege and a responsibility, and convention required that at election times he should be approached with courteous deference. Politics offered opportunities for serving the public, winning distinction and gaining valuable prizes. It was in the political arena that great territorial families competed to improve their local or national status, and political news and political gossip, often spiced with malice, were prominent features in the newspaper press, that great and growing source of information and entertainment.