Members of the Sixth Dáil - Martin Sexton

Martin Sexton (died 1 February 1966) was an Irish politician. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Clare constituency at the September 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the 1932 general election but lost his seat at the 1933 general election.

Members of the Sixth Dáil - Peter de Loughry

Peter de Loughry (4 February 1868 – 23 October 1931) was an Irish politician. He was elected to the Irish Free State Seanad in 1922 as an independent, but lost his seat at the 1925 election. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency at the September 1927 general election. He did not contest the 1932 general election.

The Sixth Dáil

This is a list of the members who were elected to the 6th Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (legislature) of the Irish Free State. These TDs (Members of Parliament) were elected at the September 1927 general election on 15 September 1927 and met on 11 October 1927. The 6th Dáil was dissolved by Governor-General James McNeill, at the request of the President of the Executive Council W. T. Cosgrave on 29 January 1932. The 6th Dáil lasted 1,615 days.

The list of the 153 TDs elected, is given in alphabetical order by constituency.

Members of the 6th Dáil Constituency Name Party
Carlow–Kilkenny W. T. Cosgrave Cumann na nGaedheal
Peter de Loughry Cumann na nGaedheal
Edward Doyle Labour Party
Thomas Derrig Fianna Fáil
Richard Holohan Farmers' Party

Cavan John Cole Independent
John O'Hanlon Independent
John Joe O'Reilly Cumann na nGaedheal
Paddy Smith Fianna Fáil

Clare Éamon de Valera Fianna Fáil
Patrick Hogan Labour Party
Patrick Houlihan Fianna Fáil
Patrick Kelly Cumann na nGaedheal
Martin Sexton Fianna Fáil

Cork Borough Richard Anthony Labour Party
W. T. Cosgrave Cumann na nGaedheal
Barry Egan Cumann na nGaedheal
Hugo Flinn Fianna Fáil
Seán French Fianna Fáil

Cork East Edmond Carey Cumann na nGaedheal
Martin Corry Fianna Fáil
John Daly Cumann na nGaedheal
Michael Hennessy Cumann na nGaedheal
William Kent Fianna Fáil

Cork North Daniel Corkery Fianna Fáil
Daniel O'Leary Cumann na nGaedheal
Daniel Vaughan Farmers' Party

Cork West Thomas Mullins Fianna Fáil
Timothy J. Murphy Labour Party
Timothy O'Donovan Farmers' Party
Timothy Sheehy Cumann na nGaedheal
Jasper Wolfe Independent

Donegal Neal Blaney Fianna Fáil
Frank Carney Fianna Fáil
Archie Cassidy Labour Party
Eugene Doherty Cumann na nGaedheal
Hugh Law Cumann na nGaedheal
Michael Óg McFadden Cumann na nGaedheal
John White Farmers' Party
James Myles Independent

Dublin County Seán Brady Fianna Fáil
Bryan Cooper Cumann na nGaedheal
Desmond FitzGerald Cumann na nGaedheal
John Good Independent
Seán MacEntee Fianna Fáil
Joseph Murphy Independent
Batt O'Connor Cumann na nGaedheal
Gearóid O'Sullivan Cumann na nGaedheal

Dublin North Alfred Byrne Independent
John Byrne Cumann na nGaedheal
Margaret Collins-O'Driscoll Cumann na nGaedheal
Eamonn Cooney Fianna Fáil
James Larkin Irish Worker League
Patrick Leonard Cumann na nGaedheal
Richard Mulcahy Cumann na nGaedheal
Seán T. O'Kelly Fianna Fáil

Dublin South James Beckett Cumann na nGaedheal
Robert Briscoe Fianna Fáil
Peadar Doyle Cumann na nGaedheal
Thomas Hennessy Cumann na nGaedheal
Myles Keogh Cumann na nGaedheal
Frank Kerlin Fianna Fáil
Seán Lemass Fianna Fáil

Dublin University Ernest Alton Independent
James Craig Independent
William Thrift Independent

Galway Seán Broderick Cumann na nGaedheal
Frank Fahy Fianna Fáil
Patrick Hogan Cumann na nGaedheal
Stephen Jordan Fianna Fáil
Mark Killilea, Snr Fianna Fáil
Martin McDonogh Cumann na nGaedheal
Joseph Mongan Cumann na nGaedheal
Thomas Powell Fianna Fáil
Seán Tubridy Fianna Fáil

Kerry Frederick Crowley Fianna Fáil
James Crowley Cumann na nGaedheal
Fionán Lynch Cumann na nGaedheal
Tom McEllistrim Fianna Fáil
William O'Leary Fianna Fáil
Thomas O'Reilly Fianna Fáil
John O'Sullivan Cumann na nGaedheal

Kildare Hugh Colohan Labour Party
Domhnall Ua Buachalla Fianna Fáil
George Wolfe Cumann na nGaedheal

Leitrim–Sligo James Dolan Cumann na nGaedheal
Frank Carty Fianna Fáil
John Hennigan Cumann na nGaedheal
Samuel Holt Fianna Fáil
Bernard Maguire Fianna Fáil
Patrick Reynolds Cumann na nGaedheal
Martin Roddy Cumann na nGaedheal

Leix–Offaly William Aird Cumann na nGaedheal
Patrick Boland Fianna Fáil
William Davin Labour Party
James Dwyer Cumann na nGaedheal
Patrick Gorry Fianna Fáil

Limerick George C. Bennett Cumann na nGaedheal
Daniel Bourke Fianna Fáil
Patrick Clancy Labour Party
James Colbert Fianna Fáil
Tadhg Crowley Fianna Fáil
John Nolan Cumann na nGaedheal
Richard O'Connell Cumann na nGaedheal

Longford–Westmeath Henry Broderick Labour Party
Michael Connolly Cumann na nGaedheal
Michael Kennedy Fianna Fáil
James Killane Fianna Fáil
Patrick Shaw Cumann na nGaedheal

Louth Frank Aiken Fianna Fáil
James Coburn National League Party
James Murphy Cumann na nGaedheal

Mayo North Micheál Clery Fianna Fáil
Michael Davis Cumann na nGaedheal
Mark Henry Cumann na nGaedheal
P. J. Ruttledge Fianna Fáil

Mayo South James FitzGerald-Kenney Cumann na nGaedheal
Michael Kilroy Fianna Fáil
Martin Nally Cumann na nGaedheal
Thomas J. O'Connell Labour Party
Richard Walsh Fianna Fáil

Meath Eamonn Duggan Cumann na nGaedheal
Arthur Matthews Cumann na nGaedheal
Matthew O'Reilly Fianna Fáil

Monaghan Ernest Blythe Cumann na nGaedheal
Alexander Haslett Independent
Conn Ward Fianna Fáil

National University of Ireland Michael Hayes Ceann Comhairle
Patrick McGilligan Cumann na nGaedheal
Michael Tierney Cumann na nGaedheal

Roscommon Gerald Boland Fianna Fáil
Michael Brennan Independent
Martin Conlon Cumann na nGaedheal
Patrick O'Dowd Fianna Fáil

Tipperary Séamus Burke Cumann na nGaedheal
Andrew Fogarty Fianna Fáil
Seán Hayes Fianna Fáil
John Hassett Cumann na nGaedheal
Michael Heffernan Farmers' Party
Daniel Morrissey Labour Party
Timothy Sheehy Fianna Fáil

Waterford Seán Goulding Fianna Fáil
Patrick Little Fianna Fáil
William Redmond National League Party
Vincent White Cumann na nGaedheal

Wexford Denis Allen Fianna Fáil
Richard Corish Labour Party
Osmond Esmonde Cumann na nGaedheal
Michael Jordan Farmers' Party
James Ryan Fianna Fáil

Wicklow James Everett Labour Party
Séamus Moore Fianna Fáil
Dermot O'Mahony Cumann na nGaedheal


Date Constituency Gain Loss Note

1927-11-03 3 November 1927 Carlow–Kilkenny Cumann na nGaedheal Cumann na nGaedheal Denis Gorey (CnaG) holds the seat vacated by W. T. Cosgrave (CnaG)


1928-04-03 3 April 1928 Dublin North Cumann na nGaedheal Irish Worker League Vincent Rice (CnaG) wins the seat vacated by James Larkin (Ind)


1929-03-14 14 March 1929 Dublin North Cumann na nGaedheal Independent Thomas F. O'Higgins (CnaG) wins the seat vacated by Alfred Byrne (Ind)


1929-06-07 7 June 1929 Leitrim–Sligo Cumann na nGaedheal Fianna Fáil Seán Mac Eoin (CnaG) wins the seat vacated by the death of Samuel Holt (FF)


1930-06-13 13 June 1930 Longford–Westmeath Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil James Geoghegan (FF) holds the seat vacated by the death of James Killane (FF)


1930-12-09 9 December 1930 Dublin County Cumann na nGaedheal Cumann na nGaedheal Thomas Finlay (CnaG) holds the seat vacated by the death of Bryan Cooper (CnaG)


1931-06-29 29 June 1931 Kildare Fianna Fáil Labour Party Thomas Harris (FF) wins the seat vacated by the death of Hugh Colohan (Lab)


1931-07-00 July 1931 Waterford Cumann na nGaedheal National League Party William Redmond (NL) joins Cumann na nGaedheal following the disbandment of the National League Party.


1931-07-00 July 1931 Louth Independent National League Party James Coburn (NL) becomes an Independent TD following the disbandment of the National League Party.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Dermot O'Mahony

Dermot (Gun) O'Mahony (2 April 1881 – 22 April 1960) was an Irish politician and farmer. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wicklow constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the September 1927, 1932 and 1933 general elections. He was re-elected at the 1937 general election as a Fine Gael TD. He lost his seat at the 1938 general election.

His father Pierce Charles de Lacy O'Mahony was an Irish Parliamentary Party Member of Parliament (MP) for North Meath from 1886–1892, and his great-grandfather Pierce Mahony (1792–1853) was a Repeal MP for Kinsale in 1837.

This ends the Fifth Dáil.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Séamus Moore

Séamus Moore (died 14 June 1940) was an Irish politician and businessman. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wicklow constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at each subsequent general election until his death in 1940.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - James Shannon

James Shannon

James Shannon (died 17 October 1933) was an Irish Labour Party politician and trade union official. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wexford constituency at the June 1927 general election. He lost his seat at the September 1927 general election having only served 3 months as a TD.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - John Keating

John Keating was an Irish politician and farmer. Keating was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a National League Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wexford constituency at the June 1927 general election. He lost his seat at the September 1927 general election but was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD at the 1932 general election and was re-elected at the 1933 general election. He was elected as a Fine Gael TD at the 1937 and 1938 general elections. He lost his seat at the 1943 general election but was re-elected at the 1944 general election. He stood as an independent candidate at the 1948 general election but did not retain his seat.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Patrick J. Little

Patrick J. "P. J." Little (17 June 1884 – 16 May 1963) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. A founder-member of the party, he served in a number of Cabinet positions, most notably as the country's longest-serving Minister for Posts and Telegraphs.

Born in Dundrum, County Dublin, Little was the son of Philip Francis Little and Mary Jane Holdright. Both his parents were Canadian natives, while his father had served as the first Premier of Newfoundland before settling in Ireland. Here he became involved in the home rule movement.

Little was educated at the exclusive Clongowes Wood College before later attending University College Dublin. Here he studied law and qualified as a solicitor in 1914.

Little was engaged in the independence struggle from an early stage. Following the Easter Rising in 1916 he had formed, together with Stephen O'Mara, the Irish National League, who while being opposed to the Irish Parliamentary Party and supportive of abstentionism, were wary of the militarism of the Irish Volunteers. In 1918 the Volunteers, the Irish National League, and Count Plunkett's followers, the Liberty Clubs agreed to merge under the Sinn Féin banner with Éamon de Valera as President to fight the 1918 Westminster Election on an abstentionist platform.

Little contested the constituency of Dublin Rathmines but lost to the Unionist Maurice Dockrell, the only Unionist elected outside of Trinity College, Dublin in what was to become the Irish Free State. He remained in the background of the Sinn Féin party for the next number of years. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and fought with the Four Courts Garrison during the Civil War.

Following his release from jail he became the first editor of An Phoblacht in 1925.

Little joined Fianna Fáil shortly after its foundation in 1926. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the June 1927 general election for the constituency of Waterford. He represented the constituency until 1954.

Little was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary, the equivalent of the present Minister of State in 1933. Little was appointed Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in 1939 and remained in this office until 1948. Accordingly he was responsible for much of the censorship that was introduced by the government during The Emergency. He was not re-appointed to the Cabinet in 1951. In 1952, following the death of Bridget Redmond, Fianna Fáil won the resulting by-election and held three seats out of three in the constituency. This would have been unsustainable in the next general election so Little announced his intention to retire from politics.

He was the first chairman of the Arts Council from 1951 until 1956. Patrick Little died in May 1963. He is a great-uncle of former Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - John Hassett

John J. Hassett (died 24 November 1955) was an Irish politician and farmer. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) for the Tipperary constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the September 1927 and 1932 general elections. He did not contest the 1933 general election.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Andrew Fogarty

Andrew Fogarty (13 April 1879 – 24 April 1953) was an Irish politician and farmer. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Tipperary constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at each subsequent general election until lost his seat at the 1948 general election. He was elected to Seanad Éireann in 1948 on the Labour Panel. He did not contest the 1951 Seanad election.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Patrick O'Dowd

Patrick Joseph O'Dowd (died 19 June 1968) was an Irish politician and medical practitioner. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Roscommon constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the September 1927 general election but lost his seat at the 1932 general election. He was elected again at the 1933 general election but again lost his seat at the 1937 general election.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Michael Brennan

Michael Brennan (died 6 October 1970) was an Irish politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for fifteen years for the Roscommon constituency.

Brennan was first elected as an independent TD to the 5th Dáil Éireann in the June 1927 general election and returned to the 6th Dail in the September 1927 general election.

After losing his seat in the 1932 general election, Brennan joined Cumann na nGaedheal and was returned to the 8th Dáil in the 1933 general election. He was re-elected in 1937 general election to the 9th Dáil and in the 1938 general election to the 10th Dáil. He lost his seat in the 1943 general election, and stood again unsuccessfully as a Fine Gael candidate in the 1944 general election.

He stood as an independent candidate in the 1948 general election, and for Fine Gael in the 1951 general election, but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Arthur Clery

Arthur Edward Clery (1879 – November 1932) was an Irish politician and university professor.

His father, Art Ua Cleirigh, was a barrister practising in India who published books on early Irish history. Clery was brought up to a considerable extent by his relative Charles Dawson (baker, former MP and Lord Mayor of Dublin). His cousin William Dawson (who used the pen-name "Avis") became his closest friend and associate. Clery was educated at the Catholic University School, Leeson Street (where he acquired the confirmation name "Chanel" in honour of the Marist martyr Peter Chanel - Clery frequently used "Chanel" as a pseudonym), Clongowes Wood College and University College in Stephen's Green. He was a university contemporary of James Joyce. They debated the suitability of Ibsen as a literary model for Irish writers in the Literary and Historical Society. ("Whelan, the college orator" in Stephen Hero is a hostile portrait of Clery). Clery later told the Clongowes Union that Joyce was really a product of Belvedere.

Clery's principal themes included the difficulties of Catholic graduates seeking professional employment, dramatic criticism (he hailed Lady Gregory's play Kincora as the Abbey Theatre's first undoubted masterpiece but was repulsed by the works of John Millington Synge), Catholic-Protestant rivalry and tension within the Dublin professional class, and the vagaries of the Gaelic Revival movement (including Clery's own attempts to learn Irish in Ballingeary, and such questions as whether a true Gael should play tennis).

Clery is best-remembered, however, for his advocacy of partition on the basis of a two-nation theory, first advanced in 1904–05 (possibly in response to William O'Brien's advocacy of securing Home Rule through compromise with moderate Unionists). Several of his articles on the subject are reprinted in his 1907 essay collection The idea of a nation (1907, as "Chanel"; reprinted with additional material and an introduction by Patrick Maume, University College Dublin Press, 2002). Clery derived this view, very unusual for a nationalist, from several motives. These included recognition that all the arguments for Irish nationalists' right to self-determination could be used to justify Ulster Unionists' right to secede from Ireland, fear that it might be impossible to obtain Home Rule unless Ulster were excluded, and distaste for both Ulster Protestants and Ulster Catholics, whom he saw as deplorably anglicised. He remained a partitionist for the rest of his life. Clery was not particularly successful as a barrister, but on the establishment of University College Dublin in 1909 he was appointed to the part-time post of Professor of the Law of Property.

After 1914, he moved from unenthusiastic support for John Redmond's Irish Parliamentary Party to separatism. Before the 1916 Easter Rising, he was an inactive member of the Irish Volunteers, and he acted as defence counsel at the court-martial of Eoin MacNeill. During the 1918 general election he campaigned for Sinn Féin. As one of the few barristers prepared to assist the Sinn Féin Court system (risking disbarment thereby) he was appointed to the Dáil Supreme Court. Clery opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty because he believed that it would lead to inexorable re-anglicisation and the eventual return of the Union. He described the Oath of Allegiance, with its pledge to the King, as "the Devil's Sacrament". (Clery was a pious Catholic of somewhat morbid tendency, and often employed theological language in political controversy.) After the suppression of the Dáil Supreme Court, Clery was sent to the Vatican as a Republican envoy to try to get the Pope to curb the pro-Free State pronouncements of the Irish bishops. Clery later refused to accept a judicial pension (on which he nevertheless had to pay tax) and as an ex-judge did not practice before inferior courts; this caused a serious drop in his income. Although his political views were unusual among Leader contributors (Moran and most of his circle supported the Treaty) he was respected for his principles and continued to write for the Leader. In the aftermath of World War I and the Treaty debacle, Clery developed an increasing political pessimism; he came to believe that parliamentary democracy had never been anything more than a swindle by "Masonic" elites and advocated authoritarian government based on Catholic social thought.

Clery was elected to Dáil Éireann as an abstentionist independent Teachta Dála (TD) for the National University of Ireland constituency at the June 1927 general election. He did not take his seat and he did not contest the September 1927 general election since new legislation obliged candidates to pledge in advance that they would take their seat. Clery passed his last years in solitude as a melancholy and somewhat ascetic bachelor; his chief delight was in the company of his students, and the sports clubs of UCD were the principal legatees of his will. He was one of the lawyers who advised Éamon de Valera that the Irish Free State was not legally obliged to pay the Land Annuities. He died in November 1932 from pneumonia contracted at a public meeting. In addition to The Idea of a nation, Clery published Dublin Essays (1920) and (as Arthur Synan) The Shadows of the King, a historical novel modeled on Thackeray's Esmonde.

Clery was a close friend of Tom Kettle, with whom he founded an influential dining club, the "Cui Bono". Hugh Kennedy (later Chief Justice of the Irish Free State) was also a lifelong friend. The principal influence on Clery was the "Irish Ireland" editor D. P. Moran, to whose weekly paper the Leader Clery became a frequent contributor. (He also wrote as "Chanel" for the University College paper St. Stephen's, for the New Ireland Review as "Arthur Synan" (Synan may have been his mother's maiden name) and for Studies under his own name.)

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Alexander Haslett

Alexander Haslett (2 September 1883 – 17 January 1951) was an Irish independent politician. He was an independent Teachta Dála (TD) for the Monaghan Monaghan in the Dáil Éireann from 1927 until 1937. He stood as an Independent Protestant candidate. His failure to be elected in both 1937 and 1943 was due to the continuing decline in numbers of the Protestant population in County Monaghan. Fine Gael also ran a Protestant candidate (Ernest Blythe).

Haslett was a Presbyterian - a member of the Ballyalbany Congregation in Monaghan town - who had purchased his own small farm under the 1903 Land Act.

He was a very prominent member of the Orange Order and served as County Grandmaster for Monaghan.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Matthew O'Reilly

Matthew O'Reilly (1 March 1880 – 13 November 1962) was an Irish politician and farmer. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Meath constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at each subsequent general election until lost his seat at the 1954 general election.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Eugene Mullen

Eugene Mullen (born c. 1898–date of death unknown) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician.
Mullen was born in Roemore, Breaffy, County Mayo, to national-school teacher parents, Thomas and Mary. A schoolteacher by profession, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency at the June 1927 general election. He lost his seat at the September 1927 general election having only served 3 months as a TD.

Mullen subsequently became a professor. Later, he joined the Order of the Discalced Carmelites, assuming the name Fr Ephraim.

He was a younger brother to Thomas Mullen, Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin County constituency from 1938 to 1943.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - James FitzGerald-Kenney

James FitzGerald-Kenney (1 January 1878 – 21 October 1956) was an Irish politician and Senior Counsel. He was first elected at the June 1927 general election as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo constituency. He was appointed to the Cabinet on his first year in Dáil Éireann as Minister for Justice. He was re-elected at every election until he lost his seat at the 1944 general election. He subsequently retired from politics.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Mark Henry

Mark Henry (died 1952) was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo North constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the September 1927 general election. He did not contest the 1932 general election.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Michael Davis

Michael Davis (1875 – 30 March 1944) was an Irish Cumann na nGaedheal politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo North constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at each subsequent general election until he retired from politics at the 1937 general election.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - James Coburn

James Coburn (13 April 1889 – 5 December 1953) was an Irish politician and builders foreman. Coburn was first elected to Dáil Éireann as an National League Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Louth constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the September 1927 general election but became an independent TD in July 1931 following the disbandment of the National League Party. He was re-elected as an independent TD at the 1932 and 1933 general elections. At the 1937 general election he was re-elected as a Fine Gael TD for Louth. He was re-elected at each general election until the 1951 general election. He died during the 14th Dáil and the subsequent by-election on 3 March 1954 was won by his son George Coburn.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - James Victory

James Victory (1880 – 5 August 1946) was an Irish politician and farmer. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Longford–Westmeath constituency at the June 1927 general election.

Despite his name, he lost his seat at the September 1927 general election and was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1932 general election. He regained his seat at the 1933 general election and was re-elected for the Athlone–Longford constituency at the 1937 and 1938 general elections. He lost his seat once more at the 1943 general election.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Michael Kennedy

Michael Joseph Kennedy (died 14 February 1965) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was a member of Dáil Éireann representing various constituencies from 1927–65. He was first elected at the June 1927 general election for the Longford–Westmeath constituency. He moved to the new constituency of Meath–Westmeath in 1937, and in 1948 moved back to the newly re-created Longford–Westmeath constituency.

He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare from 1951–1954 and from 1957–1961.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Hugh Garahan

Hugh Garahan (died 7 June 1940) was an Irish politician and farmer. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1923 general election. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the June 1927 general election as a Farmers' Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Longford–Westmeath constituency. He lost his seat at the September 1927 general election. In 1931 he was elected to the Seanad of the Irish Free State and was re-elected to the Seanad in 1934.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Henry Broderick

Henry Broderick

James Henry Broderick, known as Henry Broderick, was an Irish Labour Party politician. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Longford–Westmeath constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the September 1927 general election but lost his seat at the 1932 general election.

Independence Day

Declaration of Independence

The Signing of the Declaration of Independence

4 Jul7 1776

On this blog, we celebrate Independence. In 1776, we, Americans declared our Independence from England. 140 years later, Ireland did the same thing. It took Ireland six more years to achieve it. It took America a few more years than that to finally achieve our Independence. Nevertheless, we both achieved what we set out to do - break the shackles of bondage to England. Let us all celebrate!!

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Michael Keyes

Michael Keyes

Michael J. Keyes (1886–1959) was an Irish Labour Party politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann on his second attempt in 1927 as a Labour Party TD for Limerick. He lost his seat in the second election in 1927 and failed to be elected in 1932, however, he returned to the Dáil in 1933.

In 1949, he joined the Cabinet of John A. Costello replacing the recently deceased Timothy J. Murphy and serving as Minister for Local Government from 1949–1951. He served in government again between 1954 and 1957, serving as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs. Keyes fought his last election in 1954 and subsequently retired from the Dáil. He served also as mayor of Limerick.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Gilbert Hewson

Gilbert Hewson (died 1951) was an Irish politician. Hewson was elected to Dáil Éireann as an independent Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick constituency at the June 1927 general election. He lost his seat at the September 1927 general election and was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1932 general election.

The son of John B. Hewson, of Castle Hewson, Askeaton, Co Limerick, Gilbert Hewson was a barrister at law. He served as a member of Limerick County Council. He was a member of Limerick County Council for many years.

He died at his home at Lough House, Ballyengland, Askeaton.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Tadhg Crowley

Tadhg Crowley (1890 – 12 March 1970) was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick constituency at the June 1927 general election.

He was re-elected at each subsequent general election until he lost his seat at the 1937 general election. He was re-gained his seat at the 1938 general election and was re-elected at the 1943 general election but lost his seat again at the 1944 general election. He was elected to the 5th Seanad in 1944 on the Industrial and Commercial Panel. He was defeated at the 1948 Seanad election. He was once more elected to the Dáil at the 1951 general election and was re-elected at the 1954 general election. He did not contest the 1957 general election but did contest the 1957 Seanad election and was elected to the 9th Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial Panel. He did not contest the 1961 Seanad election.

Members of the Fifth Dáil - George C. Bennett

George C. Westropp Bennett (1877 – 20 June 1963) was an Anglo-Irish Catholic Cumann na nGaedheal and Fine Gael politician. He was born in Ballymurphy, his father's estate in County Limerick in 1877. He was the second son of Captain Thomas Westropp Bennett, a British Army officer and a scion of an old Limerick family of Protestant Irish Gentry. His elder brother Thomas Westropp Bennett had a very successful career as a Senator and Cathaoirleach of the Irish Free State Senate as well as serving in the Board of the Irish Agricultural Organisational Society (IAOS) for many years with Sir Horace Plunkett.

George C. Bennett spent several years farming in Canada before returning to Limerick. He became a Magistrate, County Councillor and Vice Chairman of the local Hospital Committee and was involved in many other charitable projects which brought him a considerable local following. A noted farmer, agricultural expert he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) at the June 1927 general election for the Limerick constituency. He later joined Fine Gael.

Throughout his time in the Dáil, he was renowned as a strong defender of the Agricultural interest and was very popular with his constituents. After a redrawing of the boundaries of the Limerick constituency he was not re-elected in the 1948 general election but the Inter Party Government Taoiseach John A. Costello nominated him to the Seanad where he sat until 1951 in recognition of his service to Ireland.

A noted agricultural and financial expert, he inherited an estate called Rathaney from an uncle George Bennett and owing to his financial independence gave all of his parliamentary salary to funding his constituents. A noted member of Fine Gael, he died in June 1963 after a political lifetime spent in the service of the people of Limerick and the wider Irish State. He never married, though had a wide and catholic circle of friends throughout Ireland and the UK. He was rated as "an excellent shot" and was an enthusiastic huntsman and breeder of pedigree dogs; the famous Milltown Irish Red Setters are a legacy of his.

His obituary in The Irish Times, in 1963, said that he had been "a popular public representative". In an interview in 2008 Liam Cosgrave, the former Taoiseach of Ireland, who George Bennett well said that " in 60 years he never heard a bad word said against Bennett who was held in universally high regard".

Members of the Fifth Dáil - Thomas Tynan

Thomas Tynan (1859 – 24 September 1953) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Leix–Offaly constituency at the June 1927 general election. He lost his seat at the September 1927 general election having only served 3 months as a TD.