The by-election arose following an election petition which unseated the incumbent MP, the Liberal Benjamin Whitworth.
Witnesses alleged that on the day of nomination, the Drogheda courthouse was 'filled with a mob of the lowest classes, who appeared to be under the influence of whiskey'.
There were allegations that a Roman Catholic clergyman was seen at the head of a mob brandishing sticks, and voters had to be escorted by the military for fear of violence in the streets and at the railway station:[1] 'Missiles came in all directions, and the soldiers asked their officers, "Will you let us be murdered?"
'In his decision, Judge Keogh described the town on the day of polling as 'more like a place besieged than one where a free election was going on' and criticised the behaviour and language of the clergy.
[4] Thomas Whitworth was defeated in the 1874 general election, by the 'Liberal and Home Rule' candidate, William Hagarty O'Leary;[5] on O'Leary's death in 1880, Benjamin Whitworth, by now MP for Kilkenny City, resigned that seat and won Drogheda in the ensuing by-election as a Home Rule candidate.