772 Richard Smyth

Constituency : County  Londonderry  1874-8

The  Liberals  took  both  seats  in  Londonderry  from  the  Tories.

Richard  was  a  Presbyterian  minister  from  Antrim. He  was  educated  at  the  universities  of  Bonn  and  Glasgow.  In  1865  he  was  appointed  professor  of  oriental  languages  and  biblical  studies  at  Magee  College, Londonderry. In  1870  he  became  a  professor  of  theology  at  the  same  college. He  was  an  enthusiastic  supporter  of  Gladstone  backing  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  church  and  the  Irish  Universities  Bill.

In  1874  Richard  tried  to  get  the  law  prohibiting  alcohol  sales  in  Scotland  on  a  Sunday  extended  to  Ireland. He  opposed  Home  Rule.  He  did  however  support  Butt's  land  bill  of  1875  and  recognised  the  dangers  of  Liberals  supporting  James  Sharman  Crawford's  bill  on  tenant  right  in  Ulster  but  not  Butt's  proposals  for  the  South. He  said  northeners  should  be  ready  to  help  the  South  "extricate  themselves  out  of  the  difficulties , which  I  am  bound  to  say, are  greater  than  our  own".

Richard  authored  a  number  of  pamphlets.

He  died  in  1878  aged  52.