Editing Edward Carson (section)

== Politics ==

Initially a radical Liberal,<ref name="DIB">{{cite web |last1=Jackson |first1=Alvin |title=Carson, Edward Henry |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/carson-edward-henry-a1514 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref> Carson's political career began on 20 June 1892, when he was appointed [[Solicitor-General for Ireland]], although he was not then a member of the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]]. He was elected as [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for the [[Dublin University (constituency)#House of Commons of the United Kingdom (1801–1922)|Dublin University]] constituency in the [[1892 United Kingdom general election|1892 general election]]<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26311 |date=29 July 1892 |page=4314 }}</ref> as a [[Liberal Unionist]], although overall the Liberal Party won the election.

Carson maintained his career as a barrister and was admitted to the English Bar by [[The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple]] in 1893<ref name=":0" /> and from then on mainly practised in London. In 1896 he was sworn of the [[Irish Privy Council]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leighrayment.com/pcouncil/pcouncilI.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607022603/http://leighrayment.com/pcouncil/pcouncilI.htm|archive-date=7 June 2008|title=leighrayment.com Privy Counsellors – Ireland|url-status=usurped|work=leighrayment.com}}</ref> He was appointed [[Solicitor-General for England]] on 7 May 1900,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27192 |date=15 May 1900 |page=3070 }}</ref> receiving the customary [[Knight Bachelor|knighthood]].<ref name=":0" /> He served in this position until the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government resigned in December 1905, when he was rewarded with membership of the [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Council]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27862 |date=8 December 1905 |page=8891 }}</ref>

In the [[1918 Irish general election|1918 general election]], Sinn Féin won 73 out of the 105 Irish seats in the House of Commons. In 25 constituencies, Sinn Féin won the seats unopposed. [[Unionism in Ireland|Unionists]] (including [[Ulster Unionist Labour Association]]) won 26 seats, all but three of which were in the six counties that today form [[Northern Ireland]], and the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] won only six (down from 84), all but one in [[Ulster]]. The [[History of the Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] did not stand in the election, allowing the electorate to decide between [[home rule]] or a republic by having a clear choice between the two nationalist parties. Irish Republicans regarded these elections as the mandate to establish the [[First Dáil]]. As such, all persons in Ireland elected to Westminster were considered to have been elected to Dáil Éireann. Had he chosen to do so, Carson could have exercised the option of attending the meeting of the First Dáil in the Mansion House on 21 January 1919. Like all of those elected to Irish seats in December 1918, he received an invitation, written [[Irish language|as gaeilge]], to attend. He kept the invitation as a souvenir.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rte.ie/eile/election-1918/2018/1206/1015537-edward-carson-leader-profile/ |title=Edward Carson |last=Dungan |first=Myles |date=7 December 2018 |website=[[RTÉ]] }}</ref> When his name was called out in the first roll call of the new Dáil, it was met by silence, and then laughter, from the Sinn Féin delegates and the audience in the Mansion House.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/dail-eireann-meets-in-mansion-house |title=Dail Eireann Meets in the Mansion House |author=Century Ireland |website=[[RTÉ]] }}</ref> He was listed as "as láthair", or absent.