Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet

Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet (25 August 1805 – 21 December 1876) was an Anglo-Irish politician and landowner, who built Lissadell House, located in County Sligo.

Born at Bath, Somerset, he was the son of Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 3rd Baronet and his wife Hannah, the daughter of Henry Irwin.

[1][2] During the period of the Great Famine, Sir Robert was accused of arbitrarily evicting starving tenant farmers from his land and packing them into leaky, overcrowded emigrant ships headed for Canada and America.

However, other accounts insist that he mortgaged the estate to help feed his tenants and refused to accept any rents for the duration.

In 1850 he was elected MP for County Sligo in the British House of Commons, representing the constituency for twenty-six years until his death.