James Delahunty

James Delahunty (24 July 1808 – 15 June 1885)[1][2] was an Irish Liberal Party politician from Waterford.

Vanity Fair caricature of Delahunty by James Tissot

Born in Waterford, and educated at St. John's College, Waterford,[1] Delahunty was chairman of the Waterford and Central Ireland Railway Company, and director of the Kilkenny Junction Railway Company.[1]

Involved in local politics for some decades,[1] he was elected at the 1868 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Waterford City.[3] He later lost his seat in the 1874 general election, when both the city's seats were won by candidates of the Home Rule Party.[3]

He returned to the House of Commons three years later, when he was elected at a by-election in January 1877 as MP for County Waterford following the death of Sir John Esmonde, Bt.[4] This time Delahunty was himself a Home Rule candidate, and he defeated his Liberal opponent by a margin of more than 3:1.[5]

Delahunty "was laughed at because of the dullness of his oratory",[6] and in 1878 caused some amusement in the Commons by spreading on his bench sundry personal items taken from his bag in a search for the notes for his speech on the Money Laws (Ireland) Bill.[7][8] An 1879 description described Delhunty as "a genial, warm-hearted Irishman who is generally liked in the House".[9] He died in 1885, aged 76.