Timothy Michael Healy
Encyclopedia
Timothy Michael Healy, KC (17 May 1855 – 26 March 1931), also known as Tim Healy, was an Irish
nationalist
politician, journalist, author, barrister
and one of the most controversial Irish Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
. His political career began in the 1880s under Charles Stewart Parnell
's leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party
(IPP), and continued into the 1920s, when he was the first Governor-General
of the Irish Free State
.
, County Cork
, the second son of Maurice Healy, clerk of the Bantry Poor Law Union
, and Eliza Healy (née Sullivan). His elder brother Thomas Healy (1854–1924) was a solicitor
and Member of Parliament
(MP) for North Wexford
, his younger brother Maurice Healy
(1859–1923) a solicitor and MP for Cork City
, with whom he held a life long close relationship.
His father was descended from a family line which in holding to their Catholic
faith, lost their lands, which he compensated by being a scholarly gentleman. His father was transferred in 1862 to a similar position in Lismore, County Waterford
, holding the post until his death in 1906. Timothy was educated at the Christian Brothers
school in Fermoy
, and was otherwise largely self-educated, in 1869 at the age of fourteen going to live with his uncle Timothy Daniel Sullivan
MP in Dublin.
in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There he became deeply involved in the Irish Home Rule politics of the local Irish community. After leaving for London in 1878 Healy worked as a confidential clerk in a factory owned by his relative, then worked as a parliamentary correspondent for The Nation
newspaper owned by his uncle, writing numerous articles in support of Parnell, the newly emergent and more militant home rule leader, and his policy of parliamentary obstructionism
.
Parnell admired Healy's intelligence and energy after Healy had established himself as part of Parnell's broader political circle. He became Parnell's secretary, but was denied contact to Parnell's small inner circle of political colleagues. Parnell however brought Healy into the Irish Party (IPP) and supported him as a nationalist candidate for Wexford
in 1880–83 against the aspiring John Redmond
whose father, William Archer Redmond
, was its recently deceased MP. Healy was returned unopposed to parliament, aided by the fact that Redmond stood aside.and surviving an agrarian court case which alleged that he had been guilty of intimidation.
which provided that no further rent should in future be charged on tenant's improvements. By the mid-1880s Healy had already acquired a reputation for a scurrilousness of tone. He married his cousin Eliza Sullivan in 1882, they had three daughters and three sons and he enjoyed a happy and intense family life, closely interlinked both by friendship and intermarriage with the Sullivans of west Cork.
Through his reputation as a friend of the farmers, after having been imprisoned for four months following an agrarian case, and backed by Parnell, he was elected in a Monaghan
by-election in June 1883-5, deemed to be the climax in the Healy-Parnell relationship. In 1884 he was called to the Irish bar
as barrister (in 1889 to the inner bar as K.C., in London in 1910) . His reputation allowed him to build an extensive legal practice particularly in land cases. Parnell choose him unwisely for South Londonderry
in 1885, which Ulster
seat he only held for a year. He was then elected in 1886–92 for North Longford .
Prompted by the depression in the prices of dairy produce and cattle in the mid-1880 as well as bad weather for a number of years, many tenant farmers unable to pay their rents were left under the threat of eviction. Healy devised a stategy to secure a reduction in rent from the landlords which became known as the Plan of Campaign
, organised in 1886 amongst others by Timothy Harrington.
. At the time O’Shea was separated from his wife, Katharine O'Shea, with whom Parnell was living in relationship. Only when Parnell unexpectedly turned up in Galway to back O’Shea, did Healy on this occasion give way for O’Shea to be elected.
Following the ensuing O'Shea divorce controversy which revealed that the party leader had had a lengthy family relationship with the wife of a fellow MP, whom he later married and was the father of three of her children, Healy felt unable to again give way to Parnell. His hostility had in one respect a rational basis, Parnell was recklessly endangering the Irish party's all-important alliance with Gladstonian
Liberalism
.
Healy became his sternest and most sharp-spoken critic. When Parnell asked his colleagues at one party meeting "Who is the master of the party?", Healy famously retorted with another question "Aye, but who is the mistress of the party?" – a comment which almost led him to come to blows with Parnell. His savage onslaught in public reflected his conservative Catholic origins and the relative immaturity of his mid-thirties, as he revengefully destroyed a wealthy Protestant squire. He was additionally vulgar and abusive towards Mrs. O’Shea. A substantial minority of the Irish people never forgave him for this role during the divorce crisis, permanently damaging his own standing in Irish public life. The rift prompted a nine-year old Dublin schoolboy, James Joyce
, to pen a poem called Et Tu, Healy?.
(INF) under John Dillon
. Healy at first its most outspoken member, when in 1892 he captured North Louth
for the anti-Parnellites, who in all won seventy-one seats. But finding it impossible to work with or under any post-Parnell leadership especially Dillon, he was expelled in 1895 from the INF executive committee, having previously been expelled from the Irish party's minor nine member pro-Parnellite Irish National League (INL) under John Redmond
.
In the following decades, largely due to his expanding legal practise, he became a part-time politician and estranged from the national movement, setting up his own personal Healyite organisation
, called the "People's Rights Association", with base as MP for north Louth (which seat he held until the December 1910 election when defeated by Richard Hazleton
). He waged war during the 1890s with Dillon and his National Federation (INF) and then intrigued with Redmond's smaller Parnellite group to play a substantial role behind the scenes in helping the rival party factions to re-unite under Redmond in 1900.
Healy was extremely embittered by the fact that both his brothers and his followers were purged from the IPP list in the 1900 general election, and that his support for Redmond in the re-united party went unrewarded, on the contrary Redmond soon found it wiser to conciliate with Dillon. But Healy's talent for disruption was soon recognised when two years later he was again expelled. He remained "the enemy within", recruiting malcontent MPs. to harass the party and survived politically by dint of his assiduous constituency work, as well as through the influence of his clerical ally Cardinal Michael Logue. Healy remained rooted in the extended Bantry Gang a highly influential political and commercial nexus based originally in West Cork, which included his key patron, the Catholic business magnate and owner of the Irish Independent
, William Martin Murphy
, who provided a platform for Healy and other critics of the IPP..
. O’Brien had been for years one of Healy's strongest critics, but now he too felt annoyed both by his own alienation from the party and by Redmond's subservience to Dillon. Involved with the Irish Reform Association
1904-5, they entered a loose coalition, which lasted throughout the life of the IPP.. They were in agreement that agrarian radicalism brought little returns, and with Healy practically becoming a Parnellite, they preferred to pursue a policy of conciliation with the Protestant class in order to further the acceptance of Home Rule. Redmond was sympathetic to this policy, but was inhibited by Dillon. Redmond in an act of rapprochement, briefly re-united them with the party in 1908. Fiercely independent both split off again in 1909, responding to real changes in the social basis of Irish politics. In 1908 Healy acted as counsel for Arthur Vicars
in connection with the 1908 investigation of the previous year's theft of the Irish Crown Jewels
.
By the 1910s, it looked as though Healy was to remain a maverick on the fringes of Irish nationalism. However, he came into notoriety once more when returned in the January 1910 general election in alliance with William O'Brien's newly founded All-for-Ireland Party
(AFIL), their alliance based largely on common opposition to the Irish party. He lost his seat in the following December 1910 election, but soon afterwards rejoined the O'Brienites, O’Brien providing the 1911 north-east Cork by-election vacancy created by the retirement of Moreton Frewen
. His reputation was not enhanced when he represented as counsel his associate William Martin Murphy, the industrialist who sparked the 1913 Dublin Lockout
.
Redmond's and the IPP.'s powerful position of holding the balance of power at Westminster
and with the Third Home Rule Act assured, left Healy and the AFIL critics in a weakened position. They condemned the bill as a 'partition deal', abstaining from its final vote in the Commons. With the outbreak of World War I
in August 1914 the Healy brothers supported the Allied
and British war effort, two had a son enlist in one of the Irish divisions, Timothy's eldest son, Joe, fought with distinction at Gallipoli
.
Having done much to damage the popular image and authority of constitutional nationalism, Healy after the Easter Rising
was convinced that the IPP and Redmond were doomed and slowly withdrew from the forefront of politics, making it clear in 1917 that he was in general sympathy with Arthur Griffith
's Sinn Féin
movement, but not with physical force methods. In September that year he acted as counsel for the family of the dead Sinn Féin hunger striker Thomas Ashe
. He was one of the few King's Counsel to provided legal services to members of Sinn Féin
in various legal proceedings in both Ireland and England post the 1916 Rising
. This included acting for those interned in 1916 illegally in Frongoch
in North Wales. In 1920 the Bar Council of Ireland
passed an initial resolution that any barrister appearing before the Dail Courts
would be guilty of professional misconduct. This was challenged by Tim Healy and no final decision was made on the matter. Before the December 1918 general election
he was the first of the AFIL members to resign his seat in favour of the Sinn Féin party's candidate and spoke in support of P. J. Little
, the Sinn Féin candidate for Rathmines
in Dublin.
's Provisional Government of W. T. Cosgrave, the British government recommended to King George V
that Healy be appointed the first 'Governor-General of the Irish Free State
', a new office of representative of the Crown created in the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty
and introduced by a combination of the Irish Free State Constitution and Letters Patent from the King. The Constitution was enacted in December 1922. Healy was the uncle of Kevin O'Higgins
, the Minister for Justice in the new Free State.
Initially the Irish government under Cosgrave wished for Healy to reside in a new small residence, but when facing death threats from the IRA
, he was moved as a temporary measure into the Viceregal Lodge
, the former 'out of season' residence of the Lord Lieutenant
, the former representative of the Crown until 1922.
Healy proved an able Governor-General, possessing a degree of political skill, deep political insight and contacts in Britain that the new Irish government initially lacked, and had long recommended himself to the Catholic hierarchy, all-round good credentials for this key symbolic and reconciling position at the centre of public life. He joked once that the government didn't advise him, he advised the government: a comment at a dinner for the Duke of York
, Prince Albert (the future King George VI) that led to public criticism. However, the waspish Healy still could not help courting further controversy, most notably in a public attack on the new Fianna Fáil
and its leader, Éamon de Valera
, which led to republican calls for his resignation. Unlike his successors, Healy possessed a threefold role as Governor-General. He was simultaneously
As a result, much of the contact between His Majesty's governments in London and Dublin went through him. He had access to all sensitive state papers, and received instructions from the British Government on the use of his powers to grant, withhold or refuse the Royal Assent
to legislation enacted by the Oireachtas. However no Bills that he would have been required by these secret instructions to block, were introduced during his time as governor-general. That role of being the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
's government's representative, and acting on its advice, was abandoned throughout the British Commonwealth
in the mid-1920s as a result of a Commonwealth Conference decision, leaving him and his successors exclusively as the King's representative and nominal head of the Irish executive.
Healy seemed to believe that he had been awarded the governor-generalship for life, the Executive Council of the Irish Free State
decided in 1927 that the term of office of governors-general would be five years. As a result he retired from the office and public life in January 1928. His wife died the previous year. He published his extensive two volume memoirs in 1928. Throughout his life he was formidable because he was ferociously quick-witted, because he was unworried by social or political convention, and because he knew no party discipline. Towards the end of his life he became more mellowed and otherwise more diplomatic.
He died on 26 March 1931, aged 75, in Chapelizod
, County Dublin
where he lived at his home Glenaulin, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery
.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
politician, journalist, author, barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
and one of the most controversial Irish Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. His political career began in the 1880s under Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
's leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
(IPP), and continued into the 1920s, when he was the first Governor-General
Governor-General of the Irish Free State
The Governor-General was the representative of the King in the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Until 1927 he was also the agent of the British government in the Irish state. By convention the office of Governor-General was largely ceremonial...
of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
.
Family background
He was born in BantryBantry
Bantry is a town on the coast of County Cork, Ireland. It lies on the N71 national secondary road at the head of Bantry Bay, a deep-water gulf extending for 30 km to the west...
, County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, the second son of Maurice Healy, clerk of the Bantry Poor Law Union
Poor Law Union
A Poor Law Union was a unit used for local government in the United Kingdom from the 19th century. The administration of the Poor Law was the responsibility of parishes, which varied wildly in their size, populations, financial resources, rateable values and requirements...
, and Eliza Healy (née Sullivan). His elder brother Thomas Healy (1854–1924) was a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
and Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for North Wexford
North Wexford (UK Parliament constituency)
North Wexford was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning one Member of Parliament 1885–1922.Prior to 1885 the area was part of the County Wexford constituency...
, his younger brother Maurice Healy
Maurice Healy
Maurice Healy was an Irish nationalist politician, lawyer and Member of Parliament . As a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he was returned to in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland four times between 1885 and 1918.He was one of twins, the third son born...
(1859–1923) a solicitor and MP for Cork City
Cork City (UK Parliament constituency)
Cork City was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1880 to 1922 it returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, with whom he held a life long close relationship.
His father was descended from a family line which in holding to their Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
faith, lost their lands, which he compensated by being a scholarly gentleman. His father was transferred in 1862 to a similar position in Lismore, County Waterford
Lismore, County Waterford
Lismore is a town in County Waterford, Ireland. It is located where the N72 road crosses the River Blackwater.-History:It was founded by Saint Mochuda, also known as Saint Carthage. In the 7th century, Lismore was the site of the well-known Lismore Abbey. It is also home to Lismore Castle, the...
, holding the post until his death in 1906. Timothy was educated at the Christian Brothers
Congregation of Christian Brothers
The Congregation of Christian Brothers is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. The Christian Brothers, as they are commonly known, chiefly work for the evangelisation and education of youth, but are involved in many ministries, especially with...
school in Fermoy
Fermoy
Fermoy is a town in County Cork, Ireland. It is situated on the River Blackwater in the south of Ireland. Its population is some 5,800 inhabitants, environs included ....
, and was otherwise largely self-educated, in 1869 at the age of fourteen going to live with his uncle Timothy Daniel Sullivan
Timothy Daniel Sullivan
Timothy Daniel Sullivan was an Irish nationalist, journalist, politician and poet who wrote the Irish national hymn "God Save Ireland", in 1867...
MP in Dublin.
Early life
He then moved to England finding employment in 1871 with the North Eastern Railway CompanyNorth Eastern Railway (UK)
The North Eastern Railway , was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854, when four existing companies were combined, and was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923...
in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There he became deeply involved in the Irish Home Rule politics of the local Irish community. After leaving for London in 1878 Healy worked as a confidential clerk in a factory owned by his relative, then worked as a parliamentary correspondent for The Nation
The Nation (Irish newspaper)
The Nation was an Irish nationalist weekly newspaper, published in the 19th century. The Nation was printed first at 12 Trinity Street, Dublin, on 15 October 1842, until 6 January 1844...
newspaper owned by his uncle, writing numerous articles in support of Parnell, the newly emergent and more militant home rule leader, and his policy of parliamentary obstructionism
Obstructionism
Obstructionism is the practice of deliberately delaying or preventing a process or change, especially in politics.-As workplace aggression:An obstructionist causes problems. Neuman and Baron identify obstructionism as one of the three dimensions that encompass the range of workplace aggression...
.
Parnell admired Healy's intelligence and energy after Healy had established himself as part of Parnell's broader political circle. He became Parnell's secretary, but was denied contact to Parnell's small inner circle of political colleagues. Parnell however brought Healy into the Irish Party (IPP) and supported him as a nationalist candidate for Wexford
Wexford
Wexford is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. It is situated near the southeastern corner of Ireland, close to Rosslare Europort. The town is connected to Dublin via the M11/N11 National Primary Route, and the national rail network...
in 1880–83 against the aspiring John Redmond
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
whose father, William Archer Redmond
William Archer Redmond (1825-1880)
William Archer Redmond sat for Wexford as a member of the Home Rule Party led by Isaac Butt from 1872 to 1880, and was the father of the Irish Parliamentary Leader John Redmond....
, was its recently deceased MP. Healy was returned unopposed to parliament, aided by the fact that Redmond stood aside.and surviving an agrarian court case which alleged that he had been guilty of intimidation.
Political career
In parliament Healy did not optically cut an imposing figure, but impressed by the application of sheer intelligence, diligence and volatile use of speech when he achieved the Healy Clause in the 1881 Land ActIrish Land Acts
The Land Acts were a series of measures to deal with the question of peasant proprietorship of land in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Five such acts were introduced by the government of the United Kingdom between 1870 and 1909...
which provided that no further rent should in future be charged on tenant's improvements. By the mid-1880s Healy had already acquired a reputation for a scurrilousness of tone. He married his cousin Eliza Sullivan in 1882, they had three daughters and three sons and he enjoyed a happy and intense family life, closely interlinked both by friendship and intermarriage with the Sullivans of west Cork.
Through his reputation as a friend of the farmers, after having been imprisoned for four months following an agrarian case, and backed by Parnell, he was elected in a Monaghan
Monaghan (UK Parliament constituency)
Monaghan is a former parliamentary constituency in Ireland, returning two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-Members of Parliament:-References:...
by-election in June 1883-5, deemed to be the climax in the Healy-Parnell relationship. In 1884 he was called to the Irish bar
King's Inns
The Honorable Society of King's Inns , is the institution which controls the entry of barristers-at-law into the justice system of Ireland...
as barrister (in 1889 to the inner bar as K.C., in London in 1910) . His reputation allowed him to build an extensive legal practice particularly in land cases. Parnell choose him unwisely for South Londonderry
South Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)
South Londonderry was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament to the British House of Commons from 1885 until it was abolished in 1922.-Boundaries and Boundary Changes:...
in 1885, which Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
seat he only held for a year. He was then elected in 1886–92 for North Longford .
Prompted by the depression in the prices of dairy produce and cattle in the mid-1880 as well as bad weather for a number of years, many tenant farmers unable to pay their rents were left under the threat of eviction. Healy devised a stategy to secure a reduction in rent from the landlords which became known as the Plan of Campaign
Plan of Campaign
The Plan of Campaign was a stratagem adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, co-ordinated by Irish politicians for the benefit of tenant farmers, against mainly absentee and rack-rent landlords. It was launched to counter agricultural distress caused by the continual depression in prices of dairy...
, organised in 1886 amongst others by Timothy Harrington.
Invective rift
Initially a passionate supporter of Parnell, he became disenchanted with his leader after the first clash occurred in 1886 when Healy opposed Parnell's party nomination of Captain William O’Shea to stand for Galway CityGalway Borough (UK Parliament constituency)
Galway Borough was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency, in Ireland. It returned one MP 1801–1832, two MPs 1832–1885 and one thereafter. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801.-Boundaries:This...
. At the time O’Shea was separated from his wife, Katharine O'Shea, with whom Parnell was living in relationship. Only when Parnell unexpectedly turned up in Galway to back O’Shea, did Healy on this occasion give way for O’Shea to be elected.
Following the ensuing O'Shea divorce controversy which revealed that the party leader had had a lengthy family relationship with the wife of a fellow MP, whom he later married and was the father of three of her children, Healy felt unable to again give way to Parnell. His hostility had in one respect a rational basis, Parnell was recklessly endangering the Irish party's all-important alliance with Gladstonian
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
Liberalism
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
.
Healy became his sternest and most sharp-spoken critic. When Parnell asked his colleagues at one party meeting "Who is the master of the party?", Healy famously retorted with another question "Aye, but who is the mistress of the party?" – a comment which almost led him to come to blows with Parnell. His savage onslaught in public reflected his conservative Catholic origins and the relative immaturity of his mid-thirties, as he revengefully destroyed a wealthy Protestant squire. He was additionally vulgar and abusive towards Mrs. O’Shea. A substantial minority of the Irish people never forgave him for this role during the divorce crisis, permanently damaging his own standing in Irish public life. The rift prompted a nine-year old Dublin schoolboy, James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, to pen a poem called Et Tu, Healy?.
Estrangement
Following Parnell's death in 1891, the IPP's anti-Parnellite majority group broke away forming the Irish National FederationIrish National Federation
The Irish National Federation was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded in March 1891 by former members of the Irish National League who had left the Irish Parliamentary Party in protest when Charles Stewart Parnell refused to resign the party leadership as a result of his...
(INF) under John Dillon
John Dillon
John Dillon was an Irish land reform agitator from Dublin, an Irish Home Rule activist, a nationalist politician, a Member of Parliament for over 35 years, and the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party....
. Healy at first its most outspoken member, when in 1892 he captured North Louth
North Louth (UK Parliament constituency)
North Louth was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1918...
for the anti-Parnellites, who in all won seventy-one seats. But finding it impossible to work with or under any post-Parnell leadership especially Dillon, he was expelled in 1895 from the INF executive committee, having previously been expelled from the Irish party's minor nine member pro-Parnellite Irish National League (INL) under John Redmond
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
.
In the following decades, largely due to his expanding legal practise, he became a part-time politician and estranged from the national movement, setting up his own personal Healyite organisation
Healyite Nationalist
The Healyite Nationalists were Irish Nationalist politicians who supported Timothy Healy MP.Healy was the most outspoken member of the anti-Parnellite majority in the Irish Parliamentary Party...
, called the "People's Rights Association", with base as MP for north Louth (which seat he held until the December 1910 election when defeated by Richard Hazleton
Richard Hazleton
Richard Hazleton was an Irish nationalist politician of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He was Member of Parliament for North Galway from 1906 to 1918, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.-Early life:The son of Thomas Hazleton, of Dungannon...
). He waged war during the 1890s with Dillon and his National Federation (INF) and then intrigued with Redmond's smaller Parnellite group to play a substantial role behind the scenes in helping the rival party factions to re-unite under Redmond in 1900.
Healy was extremely embittered by the fact that both his brothers and his followers were purged from the IPP list in the 1900 general election, and that his support for Redmond in the re-united party went unrewarded, on the contrary Redmond soon found it wiser to conciliate with Dillon. But Healy's talent for disruption was soon recognised when two years later he was again expelled. He remained "the enemy within", recruiting malcontent MPs. to harass the party and survived politically by dint of his assiduous constituency work, as well as through the influence of his clerical ally Cardinal Michael Logue. Healy remained rooted in the extended Bantry Gang a highly influential political and commercial nexus based originally in West Cork, which included his key patron, the Catholic business magnate and owner of the Irish Independent
Irish Independent
The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...
, William Martin Murphy
William Martin Murphy
William Martin Murphy was an Irish nationalist journalist, businessman and politician. A Member of Parliament representing Dublin from 1885 to 1892, he was dubbed 'William Murder Murphy' among Dublin workers and the press due to the Dublin Lockout of 1913...
, who provided a platform for Healy and other critics of the IPP..
Coalition of a kind
However, at least after 1903 Healy was joined in his estrangement from the party leadership by William O'BrienWilliam O'Brien
William O'Brien was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. O’Brien had been for years one of Healy's strongest critics, but now he too felt annoyed both by his own alienation from the party and by Redmond's subservience to Dillon. Involved with the Irish Reform Association
Irish Reform Association
The Irish Reform Association was an attempt to introduce limited devolved self-government to Ireland by a group of reform oriented Irish unionist land owners who proposed to initially adopt something less than full Home Rule...
1904-5, they entered a loose coalition, which lasted throughout the life of the IPP.. They were in agreement that agrarian radicalism brought little returns, and with Healy practically becoming a Parnellite, they preferred to pursue a policy of conciliation with the Protestant class in order to further the acceptance of Home Rule. Redmond was sympathetic to this policy, but was inhibited by Dillon. Redmond in an act of rapprochement, briefly re-united them with the party in 1908. Fiercely independent both split off again in 1909, responding to real changes in the social basis of Irish politics. In 1908 Healy acted as counsel for Arthur Vicars
Arthur Vicars
Sir Arthur Vicars, KCVO was an English-born genealogist and heraldic expert who spent his adult life in Ireland. He was appointed Ulster King of Arms in 1893, but was removed from the post in 1908 following the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels in the previous year...
in connection with the 1908 investigation of the previous year's theft of the Irish Crown Jewels
Irish Crown Jewels
The Crown Jewels of Ireland were heavily jewelled insignia of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick. They were worn by the sovereign at the installation of knights of that order, the Irish equivalent of the English Order of the Garter and the Scottish Order of the Thistle...
.
By the 1910s, it looked as though Healy was to remain a maverick on the fringes of Irish nationalism. However, he came into notoriety once more when returned in the January 1910 general election in alliance with William O'Brien's newly founded All-for-Ireland Party
All-for-Ireland League
The All-for-Ireland League , was an Irish, Munster-based political party . Founded by William O'Brien MP, it generated a new national movement to achieve agreement between the different parties concerned on the historically difficult aim of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland...
(AFIL), their alliance based largely on common opposition to the Irish party. He lost his seat in the following December 1910 election, but soon afterwards rejoined the O'Brienites, O’Brien providing the 1911 north-east Cork by-election vacancy created by the retirement of Moreton Frewen
Moreton Frewen
Moreton Frewen was an Anglo-Irish writer on monetary reform who served briefly as a Member of Parliament .-Life:...
. His reputation was not enhanced when he represented as counsel his associate William Martin Murphy, the industrialist who sparked the 1913 Dublin Lockout
Dublin Lockout
The Dublin Lock-out was a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers which took place in Ireland's capital city of Dublin. The dispute lasted from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, and is often viewed as the most severe and significant industrial dispute in...
.
Redmond's and the IPP.'s powerful position of holding the balance of power at Westminster
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
and with the Third Home Rule Act assured, left Healy and the AFIL critics in a weakened position. They condemned the bill as a 'partition deal', abstaining from its final vote in the Commons. With the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in August 1914 the Healy brothers supported the Allied
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
and British war effort, two had a son enlist in one of the Irish divisions, Timothy's eldest son, Joe, fought with distinction at Gallipoli
Landing at Cape Helles
The landing at Cape Helles was part of the amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula by British and French forces on April 25, 1915 during the First World War. Helles, at the foot of the peninsula, was the main landing area. With the support of the guns of the Royal Navy, a British division...
.
Having done much to damage the popular image and authority of constitutional nationalism, Healy after the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
was convinced that the IPP and Redmond were doomed and slowly withdrew from the forefront of politics, making it clear in 1917 that he was in general sympathy with Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:...
's Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
movement, but not with physical force methods. In September that year he acted as counsel for the family of the dead Sinn Féin hunger striker Thomas Ashe
Thomas Ashe
Thomas Patrick Ashe born in Lispole, County Kerry, Ireland, was a member of the Gaelic League, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a founding member of the Irish Volunteers...
. He was one of the few King's Counsel to provided legal services to members of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
in various legal proceedings in both Ireland and England post the 1916 Rising
Rising
Rising may refer to:In art and media:* Rising , the last novel of R. C. Hutchinson* The following albums:** Rising ** Rising ** Rising ** Rising...
. This included acting for those interned in 1916 illegally in Frongoch
Frongoch
The village of Frongoch is located in Gwynedd, Wales. It lies close to the market town of Bala, on the A4212 road in north Wales.It was the home of the Frongoch internment camp, used to hold German prisoners-of-war during First World War, and then Irish Republican prisoners from the 1916...
in North Wales. In 1920 the Bar Council of Ireland
Bar Council of Ireland
The Bar Council of Ireland is the regulatory and representative body for barristers practising law in the Republic of Ireland. The Council is composed of twenty-five members composed of twenty elected members, four co-opted members and Attorney-General who holds office ex officio. The elected...
passed an initial resolution that any barrister appearing before the Dail Courts
Dáil Courts
During the Irish War of Independence, the Dáil Courts were the judicial branch of government of the short-lived Irish Republic. They were formally established by a decree of the First Dáil Éireann on 29 June 1920, replacing more limited Arbitration Courts that had been authorised a year earlier...
would be guilty of professional misconduct. This was challenged by Tim Healy and no final decision was made on the matter. Before the December 1918 general election
Irish (UK) general election, 1918
The Irish general election of 1918 was that part of the 1918 United Kingdom general election that took place in Ireland. It is seen as a key moment in modern Irish history...
he was the first of the AFIL members to resign his seat in favour of the Sinn Féin party's candidate and spoke in support of P. J. Little
Patrick Little
Patrick J. "P. J." Little was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. A founder-member of the party, he served in a number of Cabinet positions, most notably as the country's longest-serving Minister for Posts and Telegraphs....
, the Sinn Féin candidate for Rathmines
Rathmines
Rathmines is a suburb on the southside of Dublin, about 3 kilometres south of the city centre. It effectively begins at the south side of the Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to the south, Ranelagh to the east and Harold's Cross to the west.Rathmines has...
in Dublin.
Governor-General
He returned to considerable prominence in 1922 when, on the urging of the soon-to-be Irish Free StateIrish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
's Provisional Government of W. T. Cosgrave, the British government recommended to King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
that Healy be appointed the first 'Governor-General of the Irish Free State
Governor-General of the Irish Free State
The Governor-General was the representative of the King in the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Until 1927 he was also the agent of the British government in the Irish state. By convention the office of Governor-General was largely ceremonial...
', a new office of representative of the Crown created in the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
and introduced by a combination of the Irish Free State Constitution and Letters Patent from the King. The Constitution was enacted in December 1922. Healy was the uncle of Kevin O'Higgins
Kevin O'Higgins
Kevin Christopher O'Higgins was an Irish politician who served as Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister for Justice. He was part of early nationalist Sinn Féin, before going on to become a prominent member of Cumann na nGaedheal. O'Higgins initiated the An Garda Síochána police force...
, the Minister for Justice in the new Free State.
Initially the Irish government under Cosgrave wished for Healy to reside in a new small residence, but when facing death threats from the IRA
Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)
The original Irish Republican Army fought a guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland in the Irish War of Independence 1919–1921. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, the IRA in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and...
, he was moved as a temporary measure into the Viceregal Lodge
Viceregal Lodge
Viceregal Lodge may refer to:Residences of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland:* Áras an Uachtaráin, Dublin * Chapelizod House, County Dublin Residences of the Viceroy of India:* Rashtrapati Niwas, Simla...
, the former 'out of season' residence of the Lord Lieutenant
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, the former representative of the Crown until 1922.
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
, Prince Albert (the future King George VI) that led to public criticism. However, the waspish Healy still could not help courting further controversy, most notably in a public attack on the new Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
and its leader, Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
, which led to republican calls for his resignation. Unlike his successors, Healy possessed a threefold role as Governor-General. He was simultaneously
- representative of the King;
- representative of the British Government;
- native head of the Irish executive.
As a result, much of the contact between His Majesty's governments in London and Dublin went through him. He had access to all sensitive state papers, and received instructions from the British Government on the use of his powers to grant, withhold or refuse the Royal Assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
to legislation enacted by the Oireachtas. However no Bills that he would have been required by these secret instructions to block, were introduced during his time as governor-general. That role of being the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
's government's representative, and acting on its advice, was abandoned throughout the British Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
in the mid-1920s as a result of a Commonwealth Conference decision, leaving him and his successors exclusively as the King's representative and nominal head of the Irish executive.
Healy seemed to believe that he had been awarded the governor-generalship for life, the Executive Council of the Irish Free State
Executive Council of the Irish Free State
The Executive Council was the cabinet and de facto executive branch of government of the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Formally, the role of the Executive Council was to "aid and advise" the Governor-General who would exercise the executive authority on behalf of the King...
decided in 1927 that the term of office of governors-general would be five years. As a result he retired from the office and public life in January 1928. His wife died the previous year. He published his extensive two volume memoirs in 1928. Throughout his life he was formidable because he was ferociously quick-witted, because he was unworried by social or political convention, and because he knew no party discipline. Towards the end of his life he became more mellowed and otherwise more diplomatic.
He died on 26 March 1931, aged 75, in Chapelizod
Chapelizod
Chapelizod is a picturesque Irish village preserved within the city of Dublin, Ireland. It lies in the verdant wooded valley of the River Liffey, on the way to the slopes of the Strawberry Beds, below the Phoenix Park. The village is associated with Iseult of Ireland and the location of Iseault's...
, County Dublin
County Dublin
County Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...
where he lived at his home Glenaulin, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest non-denominational cemetery in Ireland with an estimated 1.5 million burials...
.
External links
- Governor-General Tim Healy's first Speech to the Dáil (12 December 1922)
- Governor-General Tim Healy's second Speech to the Dáil (3 October 1923)
- Letters and Leaders of my Day by T. M. Healy, KC
Reading
- Frank Callanan, T. M Healy (Cork University Press, 1996) (ISBN 1-85918-172-4)
- David Foxton, Revolutionary Lawyers, Sinn Féin and Crown Courts, (4 Courts Press, 2008), (ISBN 978-1-84682-7)
- Sir Dunbar Plunket Barton, P.C., Timothy Healy: Memories and Anecdotes. (Dublin: Talbot Press Limited, and London: Faber & Faber, Limited, 1933).
Works
- Why is there an Irish Question and an Irish Land League? (1881)
- Why Ireland is not Free, a study of twenty years in Politics (1898)
- The Great Fraud of Ulster (1917)
- Stolen Waters (1923)
- The Planter's Progress (1923)
- Letters and Leaders of My Day memoirs, 2 vols. (1928)