Swords was a borough constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons until its abolition in 1801. Elections for the borough were considered to "afford scenes of the greatest corruption". This was because the borough was not in the control of a single patron. The borough was disfranchised by the Acts of Union 1800, with effect from 1 January 1801. Where in other disfranchised boroughs the former patron was given compensation of £15,000, in the case of Swords, it was vested "for such uses or purposes as shall appear to them to tend most to the advantage and improvement of the condition of the inhabitants of the said borough".
Members of Parliament 1585 Walter Fitzsimons and Thomas Taylor 1613–1615 William Blakeney and John Fitzsimons (died and replaced by Richard Carwell) 1634–1635 Richard Barnewell and Lucas Netterville (expelled 1634 and replaced by Sir William Anderson) 1639–1642 John Taylor and George Blakeney (both expelled 1642) 1642 Charles Forster and Christopher Huetson 1661–1666 John Povey and Sir William Tichborne
1689–1801 ElectionFirst memberPartySecond memberParty 1689 Francis Barnwall Robert Russell 1692 Richard Forster John Reading 1695 Thomas Ashe 1703 Robert Molesworth Whig James Peppard 1713 Plunket Plunket 1715 Richard Molesworth 1727 Hon. Bysse Molesworth Edward Bolton 1759 Thomas Cobbe 1761 Hamilton Gorges 1768 John Hatch John Damer 1776 Thomas Cobbe Charles King 1783 Charles Cobbe John Hatch 1790 John Claudius Beresford Eyre Massey January 1798 Francis Synge Charles Cobbe 1798 Marcus Beresford 1801 Constituency disfranchised
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