SNIPPET: The secret ballot, ending the system whereby a voter's choice was publicly declared and entered beside his name, was introduced throughout the United Kingdom from 1872. Its impact on Irish politics was relatively minor. Already before 1874 O'Donovan Rossa's election for Tipperary, and a series of subsequent by-election victories for home rulers, had demonstrated that voters were prepared to defy pressure from landlords (and in some cases priests) in order to support popular nationalist candidates. The act did, however, make it easier for Ulster Protestant voters to back the cause of land reform, contributing to the significant electoral advance of Ulster Liberalism before and during the Land War.