Votes for Money

Votes for Money in Swords, Pre 1800

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.