Refused to be Members of the First Dáil - Edward Joseph Kelly

Edward Joseph Kelly (31 March 1883 – 25 September 1944) was an Irish nationalist politician and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was a solicitor, barrister-at-law and Senior Counsel (SC).

He was the son of Peter Kelly JP of Ballyshannon, County Donegal, and of Rose Kelly. Born at Ballyshannon, he was educated at St Vincent's College, Castleknock and at the Royal University, Dublin, where he obtained a M.A. He was called to the bar in 1917, made a Senior Counsel of the Irish Free State in 1930, and became a Bencher of the King's Inns, Dublin in 1937. He married Mollie, second daughter of William Hickey of Clontarf.

He was first elected as an Irish Parliamentary Party MP at the January 1910 UK general election for the constituency of East Donegal, defeating the Unionist candidate Thomas Harrison by 3,415 votes to 2,202. He was then returned unopposed in the December 1910 UK general election. In the Irish general election, 1918 he had the distinction of retaining his seat in the face of the Sinn Féin landslide, obtaining 7,596 votes to the Unionist's 4,797 and a mere 46 votes for Sinn Féin. He chose not to be a member of the First Dáil but remained active in the UK House of Commons representing East Donegal until his retirement in October 1922 on the establishment of the Irish Free State.