Members of the Fourth Dáil - Francis Cahill

Francis (Frank) Cahill was an Irish Cumann na nGaedhael politician. A teacher by profession, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedhael Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North constituency at the 1923 general election. He resigned his seat on 30 October 1924. The subsequent by-election on 11 March 1925 was won by Patrick Leonard of Cumann na nGaedhael.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Kathleen Lynn

Kathleen Florence Lynn

Kathleen Florence Lynn (28 January 1874 – 14 September 1955) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician, activist and medical doctor. She was born to a Dublin Church of Ireland family and educated in England and Germany before graduating as a doctor in 1899 from the Royal University of Ireland.

An active suffragette, labour activist and nationalist, Lynn was a member of the Irish Citizen Army and chief medical officer during the 1916 Easter Rising. For her part in the rising, she was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol, with her friends Constance Markiewicz, Madeline ffrench-Mullen and Helena Moloney. In 1923, Lynn was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin County constituency at the 1923 general election. In accordance with Sinn Féin abstentionist policy of the time, she did not take her seat in Dáil Éireann. She lost her seat at the June 1927 general election. She unsuccessfully contested the August 1927 by-election for Dublin County.

Lynn's medical career was defined by her work at Saint Ultan's Hospital for Infants, which she established in Dublin in 1919, with a group of female activists. Lynn's work with Dublin's inner city poor had convinced her of the need for a hospital to provide medical and educational facilities for impoverished mothers and infants. Earlier in her career Lynn has experienced discrimination in applying for hospital position due to her gender, and Saint Ultan's was the only hospital in Ireland entirely managed by women. Saint Ultan's Hospital grew rapidly, and from 1937 became the centre for BCG vaccination in Ireland. The hospital closed in 1984.

Lynn lived in Rathmines from 1903 to her death in 1955, sharing her home with her friend and confidante Madeline ffrench-Mullen. Lynn died on 14 September 1955, and is buried in the family plot at Deansgrange Cemetery. In acknowledgement of the role she played in the 1916 Rising and the Irish War of Independence, she was buried with full military honours.

Lynn's personal diaries for the period 1916–1955, and the administrative papers of Saint Ultan's Hospital are available in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland's archive.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - John Good

John Good (died 2 April 1941) was an Irish politician and company director. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Businessmen's Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin County constituency at the 1923 general election. He was re-elected at the June 1927, September 1927, 1932 and 1933 general elections as an independent. He did not contest the 1937 general election.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Bryan Cooper

Markree Castle - The Coopers Ancestral Home

Bryan Ricco Cooper

Bryan Ricco Cooper (17 June 1884 – 5 July 1930) was an Irish British Army officer, writer and politician from Markree Castle, County Sligo.

Cooper's ancestors, Protestant landlords, had been involved in politics in Sligo since before the 1800 Act of Union (which they opposed). His father, Francis, was a major in the British Army stationed at Simla, India, where Bryan was born. His mother was the daughter of another Irishman serving in India, Major-General Maunsel Prendergast, who had married a Swiss woman there. The family returned to Ireland before Bryan was a year old, and then spent several years in postings around Britain, until his father was sent to South Africa at the start of the Anglo-Boer War. Bryan was educated (but not particularly happy) at Eton College. His father died after the war and Bryan came into his inheritance in Sligo.

Cooper joined the British Army and, following his father's advice, trained as a gunner at Woolwich (1902-1903). A fellow-cadet ("R. T. H.") described him as "cheerful, well-mannered and pleasant", but more interested in books than in military matters. He resigned his commission a few years later and returned to Ireland, intending to enter politics - he once said that he entered politics to cure him of his shyness. In his spare time he wrote poetry strongly influenced by W. B. Yeats and Celtic imagery and started work on a novel. In January 1910 he was elected Unionist MP for South Dublin, defeating his nearest opponent by only sixty-six votes. During his election campaign he got to know a young lady of Irish ancestry from Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, a Miss Handcock, whom he married shortly afterwards. They were to have a daughter and three sons.

He lost his seat at the December election later that year. Aged only 26, he was one of the youngest ever MPs to leave the House of Commons. He resigned his commission as a captain in the Reserves in May 1914, stating publicly that he had done so in sympathy with the officers in the Curragh, but he wrote in his private diary (Uncensored Memoirs) that he had for years been fed up of the regime in the Reserves, and had been intending to quit. After the start of World War I he joined the Fifth (Service) Battalion of the Connaught Rangers. He saw action in Gallipoli, Thessalonika and Stavros. After the war he became Press Censor in Ireland and wrote Ireland Under Sinn Féin. He got to know many writers and intellectuals active in Dublin at the time.

Major Cooper was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1923 general election as an independent Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin County constituency. W. B. Yeats was one of his chief supporters (of whom Cooper wrote: "since I was a boy his writings have been one of the strongest influences on me, and helped to make me the good Irishman I hope I am."). He was re-elected at the June 1927 general election. He was elected as a Cumann na nGaedhael TD at the September 1927 general election. He died in July 1930 and the subsequent by-election on 9 December 1930 was won by Thomas Finlay of Cumann na nGaedhael. He was one of the few people who served in the House of Commons and in the Oireachtas.

In 1931, his widow presented a half size reproduction of the ancient Lough Lene bell to Dáil Éireann and it has since been the bell of the Ceann Comhairle (Chairman) of Dáil Éireann.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - John White

John White was an Irish politician, farmer and produce merchant. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1923 general election as a Farmers' Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal constituency. He was re-elected at the June 1927 and September 1927 general elections. At the 1932 general election, White was elected as a Cumann na nGaedhael TD. He did not contest the 1933 general election.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Peadar O'Donnell

Peadar O'Donnell (Irish: Peadar Ó Domhnaill; 22 February 1893 – 13 May 1986) was an Irish republican and socialist activist and writer.

Peadar O'Donnell was born into an Irish speaking family in Dungloe, County Donegal in northwest Ireland, in 1893. He attended St. Patrick's College, Dublin, where he trained as a teacher. He taught on Arranmore Island off the west coast of Donegal before spending time in Scotland.

By 1919, he was a leading organiser for the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union. He also attempted in Derry to organise a unit of the Irish Citizen Army (a socialist militia which had taken part in the Easter Rising). When this failed to get off the ground, O'Donnell joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and remained active in it during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). He led IRA guerrilla activities in County Londonderry and Donegal in this period, which mainly involved raids on Royal Irish Constabulary and British Army barracks. In 1921, he became the commander of the IRA's Donegal Brigade. He became known in this period as a headstrong and sometimes insubordinate officer as he often launched operations without orders and in defiance of directives from his superiors in the IRA. In the spring of 1921, O'Donnell and his men had to evade a sweep of the county by over 1000 British troops.

After the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922, O'Donnell and his IRA comrades were split over whether to accept this compromise, which ended their hopes of an Irish republic but which granted a self governing Irish Free State. O'Donnell opposed this compromise and in March 1922, was elected, along with Joe McKelvey as a representative for Ulster on the anti-Treaty IRA's army executive. In April he was among the anti-Treaty IRA men who took over the Four Courts building in Dublin and helped to spark the outbreak of civil war with the new Free State government. The Irish Civil War would rage for another nine months. O'Donnell escaped from the Four Courts building after its bombardment and surrender, but was subsequently captured by the Free State forces, and imprisoned in Mountjoy Gaol. At the end of the Civil War, he participated in the mass Republican hunger strike that was launched in protest at the continued imprisonment of Anti-Treaty IRA men, resisting in this manner for 41 days.

Unlike most Irish republicans of this era, O'Donnell did not see the republican cause solely in Irish nationalist terms. O'Donnell also advocated a social revolution in an independent Ireland, seeing himself as a follower of James Connolly, the socialist republican executed for his part in the Easter Rising. The period 1919-1923 had seen much social unrest in Ireland, including land occupations by the tenants in rural areas and the occupation of factories by workers. O'Donnel, in fact, is regarded as the first Irish person to use the term "occupation" in relation to the occupation of a workplace when he and the staff of Monaghan Asylum occupied the hospital in 1919.

"The occupation was, in fact, the first action in Ireland to describe itself as a soviet and the red flag was raised above it."

O'Donnell believed that the IRA should have adopted these people's cause and supported land re-distribution and workers' rights. He blamed the anti-Treaty republicans' lack of support among the Irish public in the Civil War on their lack of a social programme. Some republicans, notably Liam Mellows, did share O'Donnell's view, but they were a minority.

According to author and historian Tom Mahon,

"There were many contradictions and weaknesses in O'Donnnell's polemic. In reality, the IRA was a Petite bourgeoisie conspiratorial organisation rather than a workers' and peasants' army. It was firmly routed in the nineteenth century concept of a nationalist revolution and its few socialists were largely peripheral to the organisation. Kevin O'Higgins, a leading Sinn Fein activist during the Anglo-Irish War, famously said, 'We were probably the most conservative-minded revolutionaries who ever put through a successful revolution.' Additionally, O'Donnell failed to justify the IRA's refusal to acknowledge the wishes of the majority of the southern Irish population who supported the Free State. Most glaring of all, he had no satisfactory explanation of what to do with the Protestant working-class in Northern Ireland, who were prepared to take up arms to prevent their 'liberation' by the IRA. Despite the many flaws of his argument, he has received much serious attention from historians and biographers."

In 1923, while still in prison, he was elected Teachta Dála for Donegal as a Sinn Féin candidate. In 1924, on release from internment, O'Donnell became a member of the Executive and Army Council of the anti-Treaty IRA. He tried to steer it in a left-wing direction, and to this end founded organisations such as the Irish Working Farmers' Committee, which sent representatives to the Soviet Union and the Profintern. O'Donnell also founded the Anti-Tribute League, which opposed the repaying of annuities to the British government owed since the Irish Land Acts. He also founded a short-lived socialist republican party, Saor Éire.

In addition, O'Donnell and the IRA found themselves in conflict with their former enemies of the Civil War era. Éamon de Valera, who had founded Fianna Fáil from anti-Treaty republicans, came to power in Ireland in 1932, and subsequently legalised the IRA in 1932-36. O'Donnell announced that there would be "no free speech for traitors" (by which he meant Cumann na nGaedheal, the Free State party) and his men attacked Cumann na nGaedheal political meetings. In response, Eoin O'Duffy, a former Irish army General and Garda Síochána commissioner, founded the Blueshirts (a semi-fascist organisation, originally named the Army Comrades Association) to resist them. There was a considerable amount of street violence between the two sides before both the Blueshirts and then the IRA became banned organisations. O'Donnell saw the Blueshirts as a fascist movement based on the big farmer class.

O'Donnell's attempts at persuading the remnants of the defeated anti-Treaty IRA to become a socialist organization ended in failure. Eventually, O'Donnell and other left-wing republicans left the IRA to found the Republican Congress in 1934. However, this organisation made little impact in Irish politics.

O'Donnell happened to be in Barcelona attending the People's Olympics on the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. He joined the Spanish Republican militia that supported the Popular Front government against Francisco Franco's military insurgency. When he returned to Ireland, he encouraged other republicans to fight for the Spanish Republic - accordingly, IRA men, led by Frank Ryan and some Communist Party of Ireland members joined the International Brigades, where they were known as the Connolly Column (after James Connolly).

This was a very unpopular stance in Ireland, as the powerful Roman Catholic Church strongly supported Franco's Catholic Nationalists. Attitudes to the Spanish Civil War also mirrored the divisions of Ireland's civil war. O'Donnell remarked that the Bishops had condemned the anti-Treaty side in the latter for opposing a democratic government, but were now advocating the same thing themselves. A former comrade of O'Donnell's, Eoin O'Duffy, led an Irish Brigade (Spanish Civil War) to fight for the Nationalists.

After the 1940s, O'Donnell devoted more of his time to writing and culture and less to politics, from which he withdrew more or less completely. He published his first novel, Storm, in 1925. This was followed by Islanders (1928), Adrigool (1929), The Knife (1930) and On the Edge of the Stream (1934). O'Donnell also went to Spain and later published Salud! An Irishman in Spain (1937).

After World War II, he edited the Irish literary journal, The Bell (1946-54). Other books by O'Donnell include The Big Window (1955) and Proud Island (1975). He also published two volumes of autobiography, The Gates Flew Open (1932) and There Will be Another Day (1963).
His one play, Wrack, was first performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin on 21 November 1932, and published by Jonathan Cape the following year.

Islanders and Adrigoole were translated into Ulster Irish (Donegal dialect) by Seosamh Mac Grianna as Muintir an Oileáin and Eadarbhaile, respectively. All of his work has a strong social consciousness and works like Adrigoole, as well as being powerful works in themselves, exemplify socialist analyses of Irish society.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - James Myles

Major James Sproule Myles (1877 – 13 February 1956) was an Irish soldier, politician and rugby union player.

Myles played rugby for City of Derry and Ireland. In October 1899, together with Thomas Harvey, he was a member of the Ireland team that went on a tour of Canada. This was their first ever overseas tour. While playing, he broke his leg and he had to remain in Canada until December while the rest of the touring party returned home in November.

During World War I, Myles served in the British Army with both the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the Royal Engineers. He won the Military Cross for bravery and reached the rank of Major.

Myles served as an independent Teachta Dála (TD) in Dáil Éireann for twenty years. He was elected on his first attempt at the 1923 general election and was subsequently re-elected six times. He initially represented Donegal but then switched to Donegal East when the 8-seat constituency was divided in 1937. He lost his seat in 1943, and was defeated again in 1944.

He died in 1956 and is buried at St. Anne's Church in Ballyshannon, County Donegal.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Patrick McFadden

Patrick McFadden was an Irish Cumann na nGaedhael politician. He was elected as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Donegal at the 1923 general election. He lost his seat at the June 1927 general election.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Eugene Doherty

Eugene Doherty (22 January 1862 – 1 May 1937) was an Irish politician, affiliated with the Cumann na nGaedhael party. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedhael Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal constituency at the 1923 general election. He was re-elected at each subsequent election until lost his seat at the 1933 general election.

Irish Workhouses

Carrick-on-Shannon-Workhouse

Donaghamore Agriculture Museum

The Workhouse System in Ireland

According to Aengus O Snodaigh© 1997 The Irish People:

The "workhouse" system was imposed on Ireland despite opposition across the board. During the Famine years, thousands died within the workhouses. Other unfortunates, denied admission, died outside.

The Poor Law of 1838 had been aimed at providing accommodation for the absolutely destitute, and by 1845, there were 123workhouses in Ireland, paid for by a poor tax levied on local landlords and, like other taxes in Ireland, passed on to their tenants. Conditions for entry were so strict, as was life inside, that the workhouses were the very last resort of a destitute people. Able-bodied adults had to work: knitting for women, breaking stones for men. Food was poor--even by mid-19th-century standards set for the Irish--and accommodation was cold, damp, and cramped.

By December 1846, over half the workhouses were full and were having to refuse admittance to new applicants. Few workhouses could cope with such a sharp increase in the intake of paupers, especially sick paupers, and there were widespread shortages of bedding, clothing, and medicine. This led to the practice of giving the clothes of inmates who died of fever or any other disease to new inmates, without first washing the garments. There was even a shortage of coffins, and manyburial sites were situated within the grounds of the workhouse, sometimes next to the water supply.

Despite all these problems, in many unions [administrative districts for providing relief for the poor] the guardians and the workhouse officers attempted to provide relief despite their lack of capital and the various regulations imposed on them. In the winter of 1846-'47, over half of the Boards of Guardians were giving food to paupers who were not residents of the workhouse. This was actually illegal under England's law and was strongly condemned by the Poor Law Commissioners.

The introduction of soup kitchens in 1847 took much of the pressure off the workhouses. As conditions worsened, however, the workhouses became crammed. By February 1847, some 100,000 persons were getting workhouse relief, 63,000 of them children. A report of one workhouse that year states:

"The building we found most dilapidated, and fast advancing to ruin, everything out of repair, the yards undrained and filled, incommon with the cesspools, by accumulation of filth--a violation of all sanitary requirements; fever and dysentery prevailing throughout the house, every ward filthy to a most noisome degree, evolving offensive effluvia; the paupers defectively clothed, and many of those recently admitted continuing in their own rags and impurity; classification and separation set at nought; a general absence of utensils and implements; the dietary not adhered t, and the food given in a half-cooked state--most inadequate, particularly for the sick."

The survivors of the workhouses had this to say about the system:

"Eagoir agus batarail agus cos ar bolg agus ocras a ba saol na mbochtan sa Phoorhouse. Bhiodh na ceanna ag slad chucu feinigagus chun a lucht leanuna, agus ni raibh le fail ag na 'paupers' bhochta ach an caolchuid -- 'an ceann ba chaoile den bheathaagus ceann ba ramhaire don bhata'."

With thousands still trying to gain entry into the already over-full workhouses, the newly-elected English government in the summer of 1847 seized its chance. Responding to the usual impatience with the affairs of Ireland on the part of the British middle and upper classes, and to the declining sympathy for the starving which was replaced by the cultural stereotyping of the Irish, the legislators removed the financial "burden" of famine relief from the English electorate's shoulders.

The government announced that the famine was over and stopped financial aid from the Treasury. The poor unions which ran the workhouses were now made responsible for outdoor relief despite the fact that many were already bankrupt. The collection of taxes was nearly impossible, and the richest landlords seemed to be paying least.

The Catholic Dean of Mayo estimated that in his diocese it cost a pound to collect every shilling, a one for twenty return. In 1844 it had been necessary to send 700 soldiers as well as constabulary to collect the poor tax in Galway, and in Mayo the authorities sent a warship, two cruisers, two companies of the 69th Regiment, a troop of the 10th Hussars, 50 police, two inspectors and two magistrates.

The English Chancellor of Exchequer, Charles Wood, justified the tight-fistedness (toward the Irish) on the grounds that"except through a purgatory of misery and starvation, I cannot see how Ireland is to emerge into anything approaching either quiet or prosperity." Pax Britannica, in other words.

The new poor law saw the demise of the government's experiment in soup kitchens. Though only in place since February 1847, the two thousand or so soup kitchens were at the peak of their operations, feeding over three-million persons a day. Only £50,000 was advanced as a start-up grant; the rest was to be made up by the cash-starved poor unions, which were of course unable to collect appropriate taxes from wealthy absentee landlords. The kitchens gave at best minimal relief and were a haphazard response to the Famine, but at least they were something.

The new law required that those seeking relief must be "destitute poor" and, in a move reminiscent of Penal Days, the Gregory Clause of the act barred those with holdings of more than a quarter of an acre [a patch of about a hundred by a hundred ten feet] from receiving any form of aid. Thus the London government facilitated the clearances of estates for landlords and wiped out a way of life and an entire class of farm laborers. Desperate to hold onto the little they had, thousands died of starvation rather than bow to this new oppression which had been added to their misery.

When it was suggested to William Gregory that the provision would destroy the class of small farmers in Ireland, he replied that "he did not see of what use such small farmers could possibly be." Palmerston, an influential member of the government and anIrish landlord himself, said:

"Any great improvement in the social system in Ireland must be founded upon an extensive change inthe present state of agrarian occupation, and that this change necessarily implied a long, continued and systematic rejectment of small holders and of squatting [sic] cottiers."

Even to those who accepted the Gregory Clause conditions, entry into a workhouse was not guaranteed and was often arbitrary, and your stay could be terminated at a whim:

"Ranged by the side of the opposite wall [of Nenagh workhouse in County Tipperary], which afforded some shelter from the wind, were about 20 cars, each with its load of eight or ten human beings, some of them in the most dangerous stages of dysentery and fever, others cripples, and all, from debility, old age, ordisease, unable to walk a dozen steps... In the evening some 30 or 40 'paupers' were turned out to make room for an equal number of the crowd, while the rest returned weary and dispirited to the cheerless homes they left in the morning."

The road to the workhouse became known as Cosan na Marbh (pathway of the dead). Up to 25% of those admitted died.Yet, by 1851, 309,000 persons were in workhouses throughout Ireland, with many more seeking entry or emigrating.

"If the government of Ireland insists upon being a government of dragoons and bombardiers, of detectives and light infantry, then up with the barricades and invoke this God of Battles-Young Irelander Thomas Francis Meagher, March 18, 1848.

Appendix E 10 pp 466-468 List of Unions in Ireland showing extent, population etc. A new total of 130 Unions

No -------Union---------------Population---------Counties-------------Date
23--------Callan---------------42,707--------------Kilk & Tipp-----------27-Mar-39
24--------Thurles------------- 64,237--------------Tipp------------------28-Mar-39
25--------Dungarvan----------57,634--------------Waterford-----------28 Mar 39
26--------Lismore--------------34,382-------------Waterford-----------30 Mar 39
27--------Dunshaughlin-------22,240--------------Meath & Dublin----01-Apr-39
28--------Balrothery-----------28,124--------------Dublin---------------01-Apr-39
29--------Cork----------------158,339--------------Cork-----------------03 Apr 39
30--------Athlone--------------73,052--------------Rosc & WMeath----03 Apr 39
31--------Strabane-------------62,084--------------Tyr & Donegal------08 Apr 39
32-------Waterford------------79,694---------------Waterfd & Kilk-----20-Apr-39
33-------Armagh--------------107,145---------------Arm & Tyr----------25 Apr 39
34-------Newry-----------------88,181--------------Down & Arm--------03 May 39
35-------Edenderry------------35,536--------------Kings,Kild,Mea------07-May-39
36-------Gortin-----------------17,315--------------Tyrone----------------07-May-39
37-------Castle Derg------------21,295--------------Tyrone---------------07-May-39
38-------Roscrea---------------64,374--------------Tipp, King, Qns------08-May-39
39-------Parsonstown----------71,138--------------Kings, Tipp-----------08-May-39
40-------Omagh-----------------66,388-------------Tyrone---------------09-May-39
41-------Longford---------------85,152--------------Longfd & Rosc------13-May-39
42-------Trim--------------------31,758--------------Meath & Kild--------22 May 39
43-------Galway-----------------81,129--------------Galway---------------22 May 39
44-------Carrick on Suir--------40,259--------------Tipp, Wat, Kilk------25-May-39
45-------Ballinasloe-------------97,581--------------Galway & Rosc------06-Jun-39
46-------North Dublin---------125,245--------------Dublin---------------06-Jun-39
47-------South Dublin---------182,767---------------Dublin--------------06-Jun-39
48-------Dundalk----------------63,911--------------Louth, Arm,Mon---18-Jun-39
49-------Drogheda--------------49,681--------------Louth & Meath-----18-Jun-39
50-------Navan------------------34,482-------------Meath----------------25-Jun-39
51-------Ennis-------------------71,807--------------Clare-----------------27-Jun-39
52------Kilkenny---------------115,074-------------Kilkenny-------------01-Jul-39
53------Kells--------------------40,497--------------Meath, Cav, WM----08-Jul-39
54------Shillelagh---------------31,596--------------Wicklow,Carlow-----12-Jul-39
55------Sligo--------------------109,561--------------Sligo------------------17-Jul-39
56------Dungannon-------------66,075--------------Tyrone----------------20 Jul 39
57------Kilrush------------------70,676--------------Clare-------------------23-Jul-39
58------Scariff-------------------47,894--------------Clare, Galway---------25-Jul-39
59------Kilkeel------------------26,833--------------Down------------------29-Jul-39
60-----Ennistymon-------------49,637--------------Clare------------------03-Aug-39
61------Rathdown--------------39,933--------------Dublin, Wicklow-----08-Aug-39
62-----Cootehill----------------63,472--------------Cavan, Mon----------10-Aug-39
63-----Gort--------------------38,342--------------Galway & Clare-------20-Aug-39
64-----Boyle-------------------65,562--------------Rosc,Mayo,Sligo-----20-Aug-39
65-----Ardee-------------------42,035--------------Louth & Meath-------21-Aug-39
66-----Cookstown-------------44,624--------------Tyrone----------------22 Aug 39
67-----Carrick on Shannon---66,858--------------Leitrim, Rosc---------24-Aug-39
68-----Manor Hamilton------40,742---------------Leitrim---------------30-Aug-39
69-----Newtown Ards---------53,873---------------Down----------------03 Sep 39
70-----Mohill-------------------63,715---------------Leitrim--------------05 Sep 39
71-----Loughrea----------------61,747---------------Galway---------------05-Sep-39
72-----Roscommon------------80,608--------------Rosc & Galway-------13-Sep-39
73-----Castlerea----------------85,895--------------Rosc,Mayo,Galway---14-Sep-39
74-----Tullamore---------------52,852--------------Kings, WMeath-------16-Sep-39
75-----Tuam---------------------74,155--------------Galway-----------------19 Sep 39
76-----Newtown Limvady------41,031--------------Lond--------------------21-Sep-39
77-----Rathdrum----------------51,689--------------Wicklow---------------25-Sep-39
78-----Mullingar----------------68,102--------------Westmeath------------22 Oct 39
79-----Monaghan---------------69,137---------------Monaghan------------04-Nov-39
80-----Carrickmacross---------36,927---------------Monaghan------------05-Nov-39
81------Ballinrobe--------------74,842---------------Mayo & Galway-------07 Nov 39
82-----Castleblaney------------56,505---------------Mon & Armagh-------08-Nov-39
83-----Castlebar----------------58,001---------------Mayo------------------09 Nov 39
84-----Baillieborough----------41,414----------------Cavan & Meath-------20-Nov-39
85-----Baltinglass---------------39,646---------------Wickl,Dub,Kild-------21-Nov-39
86-----Magherafeldt------------74,542---------------Lond-------------------25-Nov-39
87-----Cavan--------------------82,694---------------Cavan------------------27-Nov-39
88-----Coleraine----------------50,940---------------Lond & Antrim-------28-Nov-39
89-----Abbeyleix----------------35,597---------------Queen, Kilk-----------03-Dec-39
90-----Mountmelick------------63,601---------------Queens, Kings--------07 Dec 39
91------Gorey--------------------36,083--------------Wexford---------------14-Dec-39
92------Dunmanway------------30,138--------------Cork-------------------18-Dec-39
93------Macroom----------------53,166--------------Cork-------------------20-Dec-39
94------Kanturk-----------------71,844--------------Cork, Kerry------------21-Dec-39
95------Downpatrick------------80,642--------------Down------------------03 Jan 40
96------Oldcastle----------------44,221---------------Meath,WMeath,Cav-06 Jan 40
97------Ballymoney-------------51,869---------------Ant, Lond-------------18 Jan 40
98------Enniscorthy------------57,735---------------Wexford, Carlow------22-Jan-40
99------Clones-------------------36,569--------------Mon, Fermanagh-----08-Feb-40
100-----New Ross---------------67,944--------------Wex,Kilk,Carlow------23 Mar 40
101-----Listowel-----------------65,198---------------Kerry------------------27-Mar-40
102-----Tralee-------------------84,374---------------Kerry------------------30-Mar-40
103-----Swineford---------------65,965--------------Mayo,Sligo-------------02 Apr 40
104-----Ballycastle---------------26,453--------------Antrim-----------------11 Apr 40
105-----Ballymena---------------66,964--------------Antrim-----------------13 May 40
106-----Larne---------------------35,695--------------Antrim-----------------13 May 40
107-----Antrim--------------------47,048--------------Antrim-----------------13 May 40
108-----Granard-------------------52,152--------------L/fd,Cav W/Mea------30-May-40
109-----Wexford-------------------48,802-------------Wexford------- --------10-Jun-40
110-----Ballyshannon-------------40,780--------------Don,Leit, Ferm--------15-Jun-40
111-----Lisnaskea------------------33,868--------------Fermanagh------------27 Jun 40
112-----Ballina---------------------115,030-------------Mayo, Sligo------------03-Jul-40
113-----Westport-------------------77,512--------------Mayo-------------------13-Jul-40
114-----Enniskillen-----------------68,694-------------Ferm, Cav Tyr---------10-Aug-40
115-----Clifden----------------------28,639-------------Galway-----------------17 Aug 40
116-----Lowtherstown--------------32,198-------------Ferm, Tyr, Don--------14-Sep-40
117-----Carlow-----------------------74,727-------------Carlow Qns Kild-------14-Sep-40
118-----Killarney--------------------56,227-------------Kerry-------------------18-Sep-40
119----Inishowen--------------------43,238------------Donegal----------------18-Sep-40
120----Cahirciveen------------------26,785------------Kerry-------------------19-Sep-40
121----Kenmare---------------------29,152-------------Kerry-------------------21-Sep-40
122----Bantry------------------------46,668------------Cork--------------------28-Sep-40
123----Donegal----------------------32,928------------Donegal----------------07 Nov 40
124----Stranorlar--------------------23,459------------Donegal----------------10-Dec-40
125----Athy--------------------------50,907------------Kild, Qns---------------16 Jan 41
126----Clogher-----------------------38,855-----------Tyr, Monagh-----------17-Apr-41
127----Letterkenny------------------25,322------------Donegal----------------28-Aug-41
128----Milford-----------------------29,230------------Donegal----------------27-Sep-41
129----Dunfanaghy------------------15,793------------Donegal----------------not decl
130----Glenties-----------------------31,752------------Donegal----------------not decl

Source: 7th Report of the Poor Law Commissioners 1841England, Wales and Ireland with Appendices pp 1-543
Submitted by Alan Longbottom

Members of the Fourth Dáil - John Prior

John Prior was an Irish Cumann na nGaedhael politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedhael Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork West constituency at the 1923 general election. He lost his seat at the June 1927 general election.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Timothy O'Donovan

Timothy Joseph O'Donovan (4 April 1881 – 1951) was a Farmers' Party and Fine Gael politician from County Cork in Ireland. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1923 to 1944, then a senator from 1944 until his death, serving as Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann from 1948 to 1951.

O'Donovan was elected at the 1923 general election to the 4th Dáil as a Farmers' Party TD for the Cork West constituency. He was re-elected at seven further general elections until his defeat at the 1944 general election to the 12th Dáil, after several changes of party affiliation. After the demise of the Farmers' Party in the 1920s, he was re-elected in 1933 as a National Centre Party TD, and when the National Party merged with Cumann na nGaedhael to form Fine Gael, he joined the new party.

After the loss of his Dáil seat in 1944, he was elected in the subsequent Seanad Éireann election to the 5th Seanad, on the Agricultural Panel. He was re-elected in 1948 to the 6th Seanad, serving as Cathaoirleach (chairperson) of the Seanad from 1948 to 1951. He died in 1951, shortly after his re-election to the 7th Seanad.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Timothy J. Murphy

Timothy J. ("T.J.") Murphy (died 29 April 1949) was a senior Irish Labour Party politician.
A native of Dunmanway, he was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1923 general election as a TD for Cork West. He was re-elected at the next nine general elections, but remained on the opposition benches of the Dáil until 1948 when the Labour Party joined the First Inter-Party Government. The Taoiseach John A. Costello then appointed him as Minister for Local Government.

Murphy died suddenly in 1949, little more than a year into his tenure as a Cabinet Minister. The by-election for his seat in the Dáil was held on 15 June 1949, and won for the Labour Party by William J. Murphy.

His brief time as minister had seen him initiate a comprehensive house-building programme, designed to tackle the country's considerable housing shortage. By 1951, some 12,000 new houses had been constructed.

An area of Murphy's home town of Dunmanway today bears the name "T.J. Murphy Place".

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Cornelius Connolly

Cornelius Connolly was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedhael Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork West constituency at the 1923 general election. He did not contest the June 1927 general election. He stood as an independent candidate at the 1944 general election but was not elected.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Seán Buckley

Seán Buckley (died 1963) was an Irish politician. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork West constituency at the 1923 general election. He lost his seat at the June 1927 general election. He next stood for election at the 1938 general election and was elected as a Fianna Fáil TD. He was re-elected at each general election until he retired from politics at the 1954 general election.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Thomas O'Mahony

Thomas O'Mahony (died 20 July 1924) was an Irish Cumann na nGaedhael Party politician who sat as a Teachta Dála (TD) in Dáil Éireann in the 1920s.

In the 1923 general election, he was elected by the constituency of Cork East to the 4th Dáil. He died less than a year later, on 20 July 1924. The by-election for his Dáil seat was held on 18 November 1924, and won by the Cumann na nGaedhael candidate Michael K. Noonan.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - John Daly

John Daly (23 March 1867 – 23 February 1932) was an Irish politician, vintner and baker. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as an independent Labour Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork East constituency at the 1923 general election and was re-elected at the June 1927 general election. He joined the Cumann na nGaedhael party and at the September 1927 general election was elected as a Cumann na nGaedhael TD. He was re-elected at the 1932 general election but died one week later. No by-election was held to fill his seat.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Andrew O'Shaughnessy

Andrew O'Shaughnessy (28 July 1866 – 1956) was an Irish politician and woollen mills owner. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork Borough constituency at the 1923 general election. His party label, "Cork Progressive Association", was a name used by the Business and Professional Group, a loose association of businessmen in the Third Dáil. He did not contest the June 1927 general election.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Alfred O'Rahilly

Alfred O'Rahilly (1884–1969) was a noted academic, President of University College Cork and Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork City.

Born in Listowel, County Kerry and educated at St. Michael's College in Listowel, and at Blackrock College in Dublin, O'Rahilly went on to third level education at University College Cork, where he completed an MA and PhD.

He was appointed assistant lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics in 1914, and made full Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1917. He became Registrar of the college in 1920, and held the post until 1943 when he became President of the University.
O'Rahilly founded the Cork University Press in 1931.

After the 1916 Rising O'Rahilly publicly supported Sinn Féin and was elected to Cork City Council as a Sinn Féin and Transport Workers candidate. Arrested early in 1921 for political writings, O'Rahilly was interned on Spike Island Prison Colony.

Released in October, 1921 he was constitutional adviser to the Irish Treaty Delegation. O'Rahilly supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and in 1922 he composed a draft constitution for the Irish Free State with Edmund Darrell Figgis.

O'Rahilly lead Irish delegations to the International Labour Organisation Conferences in 1924, 1925 and 1932, and took on conciliatory role in trade union and employers disputes in Munster. Standing as a candidate in Cork Borough for Cumann na nGaedhael, he was elected to the 4th Dáil in 1923. He stood down in 1924, causing a by-election which was won by the Cumann na nGaedheal candidate Michael Egan.

A deeply religious Catholic from early life, O'Rahilly was a member of the Society of Jesus but left before ordination and was dispensed from his vows. He maintained his (sometimes controversial) religious views throughout his life, and became a priest, and then Monsignor, in later years following the death of his wife. He wrote a biography of Fr. Willie Doyle SJ - which was subsequently translated into other languages.

He was also an advisor on university education to the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid and sat on an informal committee from 1950. The committee included O'Rahilly, and the other presidents of the National University of Ireland; Michael Tierney of UCD, Monsignor Pádraig de Brún, Cardinal D'Alton, and Bishops Cornelius Lucey of Cork and Michael Browne of Galway.

O'Rahilly wrote a major survey of electromagnetic theory, Electromagnetics. He opposed Maxwell's dominant (British) theory of the electromagnetic field and followed the French Catholic physicist, historian of science, and philosopher of science Pierre Duhem in rejecting Maxwell's field account. As a logical consequence of his rejection of Maxwell, O'Rahilly also rejected Einstein's theory. O'Rahilly embraced Ritz's ballistic theory of light. O'Rahilly also wrote against the theory of evolution.

Because O'Rahilly thought Cork lacked a social science curriculum he volunteered to teach courses in economics and sociology. When told that they could not spare him from the physics courses, he volunteered to teach an economics course and sociology course along with his physics courses.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Richard Beamish

Richard Henrick Beamish (16 June 1862 – 23 February 1938) was an Irish politician and company director. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1922 general election but he was elected to Dáil Éireann as an independent Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork Borough constituency at the 1923 general election. He did not contest the June 1927 general election.