William Abraham

Who was William Abraham?

William Abraham was an Irish Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom House of Commons. He was born in Limerick.

Although a Protestant in religion, he became active in Irish Nationalist politics. He was involved in the Irish Land League in 1881 and was at one stage imprisoned as a political suspect. He served as Chairman of Limerick Board of Guardians 1882-1883 and 1885-1886.

Abraham represented three constituencies at the Palace of Westminster. He was elected unopposed as MP for West Limerick at the 1885 general election as a Nationalist supporter of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and served until he retired in 1892. When the Party split over the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell in December 1890 he went with the Anti-Parnell majority, and was in fact the proposer of the vote of no confidence in Parnell as leader in the proceedings in Committee Room 15. In 1893, he was elected unopposed as an Anti-Parnellite Nationalist at a by-election for North-East Cork, succeeding Michael Davitt, and sat until he was defeated in the January 1910 general election by the dissident Nationalist William O'Brien, by the wide margin of 2,984 votes to 1,510.