Charles Joseph Dolan (18 August 1881 – 8 June 1963) was an Irish politician and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for the

Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish national ...

(IPP) in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Great B ...

for North Leitrim from 1906 to 1908. Dolan was born in

Manorhamilton Manorhamilton () is the second-largest town in County Leitrim, Ireland. It is located on the N16 from Sligo and from Enniskillen. History Before the Plantations of Ireland, the settlement was known, and continues to be known in the Iris ...

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...

, the son of John Dolan, merchant, and Bridget Fitzpatrick. He was first elected to parliament in the uncontested North Leitrim by-election in February 1906, caused by the resignation of

Patrick Aloysius McHugh Patrick Aloysius "P.A." McHugh (1858 – 30 May 1909), also spelt M’Hugh, was an Irish Nationalist politician. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the Member of Parliament for North Leitrim, from 1892 to 1906, and for No ...

, who had also been elected for neighbouring North Sligo. Two years later, on 30 January 1908, Dolan resigned his seat by taking the

Manor of Northstead Northstead is an area on the North Bay of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. The area near Newlands and Barrowcliff includes Peasholm Park and Scarborough Open Air Theatre. In 2011, the namesake ward had a population of 4,038, since 20 ...

in order to re-fight the constituency on behalf of

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

. In the resulting by-election, he was defeated by Francis Meehan, the IPP candidate. After losing the by-election, Dolan emigrated to

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, then a center of shoe manufacture. He hoped to export that technology and set up a shoe factory in Leitrim, but was not successful. He continued to agitate on behalf of an independent Ireland and against the entry of the United States into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Dolan's marriage to an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

in 1953 and entry into

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

made him a pariah among the Irish community of St. Louis. He became a

law professor A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and died in 1963, at Incarnate Word Hospital. He was survived by his wife, Gladys Stake Dolan. His brother James Dolan was elected as a Sinn Féin TD at the 1918 general election for Leitrim.Fermanagh Herald, 29 June 1963

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* 1881 births 1963 deaths Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) Irish Freemasons Irish Parliamentary Party MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Leitrim constituencies (1801–1922) Politicians from County Leitrim Sinn Féin parliamentary candidates UK MPs 1906–1910 {{Ireland-UK-MP-stub