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Votes for Money in Swords, Pre 1800
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© St. Colmcille's B.N.S., Chapel Lane, Swords, Co. Dublin |
Hundreds of years ago, everybody
did not have a vote. Voting was confined to people who paid 12d (5p) annually
for this privilege and were “professing Protestants”. In order to qualify
for a vote, it was necessary to live within the Borough of Swords and to prove
that you boiled your own pot during this period and were not a lodger (the word,
`wallop’ means to boil, hence the name, pot wallopers). At the start,
therefore, the title, pot-walloper, meant a person of some importance, but it
came to be used as an insult because of the activities which some candidates
engaged in to get elected. The worst case of pot walloping occurred during the
1790 election. General Eyre Massey brought in ex-soldiers, and settled them in
the town. Mr Beresford brought in revenue officers, and settled them in the
town. Massey and Beresford were elected. When the elections were over, many of
the pot-wallopers left the area, but some of them settled in Swords, and their
descendants are still in the town today.