Thomas O'Donnell (MP)
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Thomas O’Donnell (November 30, 1871-June 11, 1943), was a prominent Irish constitutional nationalist Member of Parliament (M.P.) for West Kerry during the period 1900-1918, and an active promoter of agrarian reform[1].
Son of Michael O’Donnell and Ellen Rohan, he hailed from a Gaelic-speaking family in Liscarney, Ballyduff, on the Dingle Peninsula, and his family were evicted in 1880, and lived in a small cabin for the next seven years. He became a national teacher after qualifying in Marlborough Street Training College, teaching in a boys’ school in Killorglin from 1892 until 1900.
He was elected in 1900, as M.P. for West Kerry, and over the years became a staunch supporter of Home Rule in John Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party. He was strongly against Sinn Fein, and in 1926 he co-founded the Irish National League. Along with the Fianna Fail and Labour parties, they failed to replace the Cumann na nGaedheal government in August 1927. When the Irish National League finally dissolved in 1931, he joined the Fianna Fail party.
He was involved with the Gaelic League from 1893. He was instrumental in the Irish Party forcing a debate in the House of Commons on the use of Gaelic in national schools, and on February 19, 1901, he rose in the House and began his address in Gaelic (Irish), only to be ruled out of order. It was the only time that Gaelic was used in a speech in the House of Commons in London, and this rapidly made him a celebrity for the Gaelic Revival.
He was also a close associate of Maurice Moynihan, who was chairman of O’Donnell’s election campaign committee, and leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Kerry, and founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association club in Kerry in 1885.
He was called to the bar in 1905, and practiced as a barrister for many years. He was called to the inner bar in 1932, and was appointed judge in the Circuit Court for Counties Clare, Kerry and Limerick in 1941.
He married Nora Ryan on January 26, 1897.
[edit] References
- ^ A Political Odyssey – Thomas O’Donnell, M.P. by the Very Rev. John Anthony Gaughan, P.P., published by Kingdom Books, Dublin, Ireland, 1983 (ISBN 0-9506015-4-3)
