Ormond Bridge’s Winter Torrent
Political life in 1802 was conducted under the new Union settlement. Ireland now sent 100 members to the House of Commons at Westminster: two for each of the 32 counties, members for selected boroughs and cities, and one for Trinity College Dublin. The arrangement sharply reduced the number of Irish borough seats compared with the old Dublin parliament, while preserving a political system in which land, property, patronage and established interests carried immense weight.