| South Kilkenny | |
| Type: | county |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1885 |
| Abolished: | 1922 |
| Seats: | 1 |
| Previous: | County Kilkenny |
| Next: | Carlow–Kilkenny |
South Kilkenny was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland.
This county constituency comprised the southern part of County Kilkenny. From 1885 to 1922 it returned one Member of Parliament. It was redrawn in 1918 as a result of the abolition of the Kilkenny City constituency and the transfer of part of the town of New Ross to County Wexford and the transfer of the Kilculliheen area to County Kilkenny from Waterford city under the 1898 Local Government Act.
1885–1918: The baronies of Callan, Ida, Iverk and Knocktopher, and that part of the barony of Gowran contained within the parishes of Ballylinch, Columbkille, Famma, Graiguenamanagh, Inistioge, Jerpoint Abbey, Jerpoint West, Kilfane, Pleberstown, Thomastown and Ullard.
1918–1922: The rural districts of Callan, Carrick-on-Suir No. 3, Ida, Thomastown and Waterford No. 2.
Before the 1885 United Kingdom general election the area was part of the County Kilkenny constituency. The constituency ceased to be entitled to be represented in the UK House of Commons on the dissolution of 26 October 1922, shortly before the Irish Free State came into legal existence on 6 December 1922.
The constituency was, in Irish republican theory, entitled to return one Teachta Dála (known in English as a Deputy) in 1918 to serve in the Irish Republic's First Dáil. Sinn Féin used the UK general election in 1918 to elect the Dáil. The revolutionary body assembled on 21 January 1919. The list of members read out on that day included everyone elected in Ireland. Only the Sinn Féin Deputies participated in the Dáil, but the other Irish MPs could have done so if they had chosen to adhere to the Republic.
The First Dáil, passed a motion at its last meeting on 10 May 1921, the first three parts of which make explicit the republican view.
The Second Dáil first met on 16 August 1921, thereby dissolving the First Dáil.
Sinn Féin had decided to use the polls for the Northern Ireland House of Commons and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as an election for the Irish Republic's Second Dáil. No actual voting was necessary in Southern Ireland as all the seats were filled by unopposed returns. Except for Dublin University all other constituencies elected Sinn Féin TDs. As with the First Dáil, the other Deputies could have joined the Dáil if they chose.
From the Third Dáil onwards the Dáil represented only the twenty-six counties which formed the Irish Free State.
In the 2nd and 3rd Dála Kilkenny South formed part of the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency.
Sinn Féin defeated the Irish Parliamentary Party by better than 4 to 1 in the 1918 election. James O'Mara (1873 – 21 November 1948) had been Nationalist MP for the constituency 1900–1907. He had resigned the seat when he joined Sinn Féin.
| Election | Member | Party | Note | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1885, December 4 | Patrick Chance | Irish Parliamentary | Party split | ||
| 1890, December 1 | Anti-Parnellite | Joined new organisation | |||
| 1891, March 1 | Irish National Federation | Resigned | |||
| 1894, September 7 | Samuel Morris | Irish National Federation | |||
| 1900, October 6 | Irish Parliamentary | Resigned | |||
| 1907, July 29 | Nicholas Joseph Murphy | Irish Parliamentary | Declared bankrupt | ||
| 1909, August 10 | Matthew Keating | Irish Parliamentary | |||
| 1918, December 14 2 | Sinn Féin | Did not take his seat at Westminster | |||
| 1922, October 26 | UK constituency abolished | ||||
Notes:-
Murphy is declared bankrupt, prompting a by-election.