Liam Kelly (Irish republican)

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Liam Kelly was an Irish republican, who was elected both to House of Commons of Northern Ireland (1953 - 1958) (as an abstentionist) and as a member of Seanad Éireann (1954 - 1957) (which he did attend). He was also a member (volunteer) within the IRA and after his expulsion from that organisation in 1951 of a splinter group Saor Uladh.

Kelly was a prominent member of the IRA from which he was expelled for insubordination in 1951. He then founded a splinter paramilitary group, Saor Uladh ("Free Ulster") whose activities were largely confined to Kelly's home area in east Tyrone.

Kelly was elected, on a Anti-Partition ticket, as an abstentionist candidate for the Stormont constituency of Mid Tyrone at the 1953 Northern Ireland general election and he held this seat until the following general election, though - as an abstentionist - he never attended Stormont.

Fianna Uladh was founded in 1953, as the political wing of Saor Uladh. Fianna Uladh's basic ideology - which placed it closer to Clann na Poblachta than to the Sinn Féin of that era - was summed up by Kelly in a speech made in Seanad Éireann in 1954:

We in Fianna Uladh recognise the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland under which this State operates and we are prepared to work within its framework to extend its operation to the whole of Ireland. Recognising only the Constitution and the sovereignty of the Irish people, we naturally reject the claim of Britain and of any of her institutions to exercise sovereignty in any portion of Ireland. We decline to prostitute our nationality and our consciences by taking the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown as a condition of parliamentary representation. 44 Seanad Debates col 346 (25 November 1954).

The element of rejecting British sovereignty in Ireland which was left unstated on that occasion was Saor Uladh's and Kelly's own personal involvement in acts of violence in Northern Ireland. Fianna Uladh's foundation - and its policy of abstentionism - helped to precipitate the break-up of the Anti-Partition of Ireland League in March 1954.

It was Kelly's association with Clann na Poblachta led to his nomination to the Seanad. In return for the Clann's support for the Second Inter-party Government (1954 - 1957), Taoiseach John A. Costello ensured that the votes of Fine Gael councillors elected Kelly to the Seanad (Labour Panel).

Kelly made one speech as a Senator, in support of a motion that all elected parliamentary representatives of the people of "the six occupied counties of Ireland" should be given a right of audience in the Dáil or in the Seanad: 44 Seanad Debates cols 344-50 (25 November 1954) and another brief intervention (in Irish) in a debate on the development and preservation of the Gaeltacht: 45 Seanad Debates cols 507-508 (2 November 1955). He was defeated at the 1957 Seanad general election.

Although later overshadowed by the IRA's Border Campaign (1956 - 1962) incidents such as Saor Uladh's attack on the RUC barracks in Rosslea, County Fermanagh contributed to the fall of the Government and the 1957 general election. Costello's Government, although it decided against the re-introduction of internment, responded to the activities of Saor Uladh and the mainstream IRA by stepping up security measures against these groups, leading to the arrest of prominent republicans. In response to this and to a rapid deterioration in the state of the economy, Clann na Poblachta withdrew its support and Costello was left with no choice other than to call an election.

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