Finian Lynch

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Finian Lynch (Irish: Fionán Ó Loingsigh; 1889–1966) was a senior Irish Cumann na nGaedhael and Fine Gael politician.

Finian Lynch was born in Caherciveen, County Kerry in 1889. He qualified as a national school teacher in 1912 and joined the Gaelic League the same year. He was a founder member of the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood that same year. Lynch fought in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916 and was interned in prison in England and Wales until the general amnesty in late 1917.

Upon his release Lynch resumed his paramilitary activities and was elected as an abstenionist Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for Kerry South in the 1918 Westminster Election, becoming a Member of the 1st Dáil. He was automatically elected as an abstenionist member of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and a Member of the 2nd Dáil as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for Kerry–Limerick West in the Irish elections, 1921. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty like almost all IRB members and during the Dáil Debates criticised some Anti-Treaty TDs. During the Civil War he fought with the Irish Free State Army and rose to the rank of Brigadier. He left the Army in 1923 to concentrate on his political career. He was elected a Member of the 3rd Dail at the 1922 general election as a Pro-Treaty Sinn Fein TD and at each subsequent general election as a Cumann na nGaedhael and later Fine Gael deputy for the constituencies of Kerry from 1923 to 1937 and Kerry South from 1937 until he resigned his seat shortly after the 1944 general election, on his appointment as a judge.

Lynch served as Minister for Fisheries from 1922 to 1932. After the entry to power of Fianna Fáil he qualified as a barrister and remained a TD until his 1944 appointment as a judge.

[edit] Political career

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Pius Boland	MP for Kerry South 1918 – 1922	Succeeded by Seat disestablished
Oireachtas
Preceded by New office	TD for Kerry South 1918–1921	Succeeded by Seat disestablished
Political offices
Preceded by Michael Hayes	Minister for Education Apr. 1922–Aug. 1922	Succeeded by Eoin MacNeill
Preceded by -	Minister without Portfolio Aug. 1922–Dec. 1922	Succeeded by -
Preceded by Newly Created Office	Minister for Fisheries 1922–1932	Succeeded by P. J. Ruttledge