Youghal was a parliamentary borough represented in the Irish House of Commons until its abolition on 1 January 1801.
It passed through his granddaughter Charlotte Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington to her husband William Cavendish, later Duke of Devonshire, who by 1758 had entrusted it to Henry Boyle, 1st Earl of Shannon.
Following the Acts of Union 1800 the borough sent one MP to Westminster, still under the patronage of the Earls of Shannon.
A Topographical Directory of Ireland, published in 1837, describes the parliamentary history of the borough of Youghal in County Cork: The borough appears to have exercised the elective franchise by prescription, as, though no notice of that privilege appears in any of its charters, it continued to send two members to the Irish parliament from the year 1374 till the Union, since which period it has returned one member to the imperial parliament; the right of election was vested solely in the members of the corporation and the freemen, whether resident or not; but by the act of the 2nd of Wm.
A new boundary has been drawn round the town, including an area of 212 statute acres.