Franchise Reform, 'First Past the Post' and the Strange Case of Unionist Ireland

The coincidence of franchise reform with Parnellite electoral ascendancy in the mid 1880s effectively divided Unionist Ireland in 1886. The first past the post electoral system ensured that the map of Ireland was solidly nationalist outside the province of Ulster. The pro-Union vote was maximised and solid in Ulster. Irish Nationalists and Irish Unionists were both skilled at using the transition to democracy to maximise their own strengths. There were two conflicting sets of political rights at issue and in opposition, but the political structures did not allow of their expression.