574 Edmond de la Poer

Constituency : County  Waterford  1866-73  

Edmond  won  the  seat  from  the  Tories  after  the  Earl  of  Tyrone  succeeded  to  a  peerage. His  election  was  welcomed  by  Cardinal  Cullen  who  wrote  that  he  would  "shake  the  superiority  of  the  present  Government".

Edmond  was  the  18th  Baron  Le  Power  and  Coroghmore. His  family  had  been  in  Ireland  since  the reign  of  Henry  II  and  were  major  landowners  in  the  county. He  was  created  a  Count  of  the  Papal States by  Pius  IX  in  1864.

In  1870  Edmond  opposed  the  Land  Act  on  the  grounds  that  fixity  of  tenure  would  interfere  with the  rights  of  landlords. He  resigned  his  seat  in  1873.

He  died  in  1915  aged  74.