William Joseph Corbet

William Joseph Corbet (12 December 1824 – 1 December 1909) was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for constituencies in County Wicklow for most of the period from 1880 to 1900. He was also a mental health administrator, author and noted dog breeder.

Early life Third son of Robert Corbet of Ballykaneen, Queen's County (now County Offaly), by Alice, youngest daughter of John Mulhall of Clonaslee, County Offaly, he was educated at Broadwood Academy, Lancashire. He worked for 30 years in the Irish Lunacy Office, as a Clerk in 1847–53 and Chief Clerk, 1853–77.

He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) in 1874.

Political career

In the 1880 general election he was elected as one of two Home Rule League members for Wicklow, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Wicklow constituency was divided under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and at the following 1885 general election he was elected by a much larger majority for the new East Wicklow constituency, and again in 1886. In the enlarged Irish Parliamentary Party, he was much older than most of his fellow MPs, who were typically born around the time of the Irish Famine in the later 1840s.

When the Irish Parliamentary Party split in December 1890 over Parnell's leadership, Corbet was one of the minority who supported Parnell. At the subsequent general election in 1892, he lost his seat to John Sweetman, an Anti-Parnellite, standing for the Irish National Federation, coming third after the Unionist candidate. However, at the general election in July 1895, at the age of 70, he fought back and won the Wicklow East seat by the narrow majority of 87 votes over the Unionist, the Anti-Parnellite this time coming third. This was in spite of the fact that Sweetman, having changed allegiance, had resigned the seat on 8 April 1895 and lost the subsequent by-election 26 April 1895 when he stood as a Parnellite candidate.

Corbet retired from Parliament at the general election of 1900. John Parnell also quoted a verse "In Memory of the Chief", which Corbet wrote for the card issued on the first anniversary of Charles Parnell's death, 6 October 1892.

He married first, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Jennings (she died in 1870), and, secondly, to Marie, daughter of David Fitzhenry.

Memorial

The Freeman's Journal of 11 September 1911 describes the erection of a memorial tablet to Corbet in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Kilquade Hill, Kilquade, Greystones, County Wicklow, and also gives an account of his life, political and literary.