Esmond Kiernan

Esmond Laurence Kiernan (25 December 1881 – 19 April 1967) was an Australian politician.

He was born in Fitzroy to schoolteachers John Joseph Kiernan and Margaret MacDonald. He attended state schools and became a furniture retailer; from 1909 he was a founding member of the Clerks' Union and a member of the Labor Party. He was a Georgist and opponent of capital punishment, and from 1916 to 1919 served on Collingwood City Council. On 31 January 1917 he married Mary Eileen Harrison, with whom he had four children. In 1919 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Melbourne North Province, and from 1929 to 1932 was a minister without portfolio. His outspoken support for the Premiers' Plan saw him expelled from the Labor Party in 1932, and he served thereafter as an independent member.^[1] He travelled to Italy in the early 1930s and returned to Australia a committed supporter of Benito Mussolini; he was founding president of the Melbourne branch of the Australia First Movement, but despite this was not opposed for re-election in 1934.^[2] He lost his seat in 1940, and died in Fitzroy in 1967.^[1]

Kiernan is buried in the Catholic section of Melbourne General Cemetery. His wife, Eileen Mary died in 1979.

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