It arose as a result of the death of the sitting member, Charles Stewart Parnell of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
In the year before the by-election, the Irish Parliamentary Party had split in two after Parnell, its leader, had been cited as co-respondent in a divorce case, causing a scandal.
[citation needed] The Parnellites nominated their most prominent figure, John Redmond, for the seat.
The anti-Parnellites nominated Martin Flavin, a local butter merchant and member of Cork Corporation.
In the event, the result was a big success for Flavin, who got 3,669 votes as against 2,157 for Redmond and 1,161 for Sarsfield[2] - a majority of 1,512 (and 351 over the other two combined).