Charles McGleenan

Charles McGleenan (1894 – 1974 fl.1966) was a farmer and a Republican politician in Northern Ireland.

McGleenan was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. He was interned in Newbridge Prison, but successfully escaped. He subsequently worked as a farmer of apples.[1]

At the 1935 UK general election, McGleenan stood in Armagh as an Independent Republican, winning 32.4% of the vote.[2] He joined the Anti-Partition League of Ireland (APL) when it was founded in 1945.[1]

In May 1950, the APL conference voted down a motion calling for abstentionism from the Parliament of Northern Ireland. McGleenan had been a supporter of the motion, and when a local convention selected him as their candidate for the South Armagh by-election, 1950, this was in clear opposition to party policy. Despite this, the executive did not intervene,[3] and McGleenan was able to easily defeat an Irish Labour Party candidate.[4]

McGleenan did not take his seat,[1] but did join with the Nationalist Party MPs Cahir Healy, Joe Connellan and Edward McCullagh in lobbying for admission to the Dáil, as elected representatives of territory it claimed.[3] A motion from Con Lehane proposing this was rejected; later in the year, a more modest proposal of McGleenan's to gain a right of audience in the Dáil or the Seanad Éireann was put by Seán MacBride, but was also lost.[5][6]

McGleenan held his seat in an uncontested election in 1953, but stood down at the 1958 general election.[4] At the 1966 UK general election, McGleenan stood again in Armagh, on this occasion taking 28% of the vote.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Biographies of Members of the Northern Ireland House of Commons
  2. ↑ Armagh (1935): ElectionsIreland.org
  3. 1 2 Michael Farrell, Northern Ireland: The Orange State
  4. 1 2 Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results: Counties: Armagh
  5. ↑ The Round Table, Vol XLI (1951)
  6. ↑ Dáil Éireann - Volume 126 - 19 July, 1951: Committee on Finance - Six-County Oireachtas Representation
  7. ↑ Armagh 1950-1970, Northern Ireland Elections
Parliament of Northern Ireland
Preceded by
Malachy Conlon		 Member of Parliament for South Armagh
1950 - 1958 		Succeeded by
Edward George Richardson
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