Edward Joseph Kelly (31 March 1883 – 25 September 1944)Ferguson 2005. was an

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

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 o ...

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. T ...

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 Grea ...

. He was a solicitor, barrister-at-law and

Senior Counsel The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdictio ...

(SC). He was the son of Peter Kelly JP of

Ballyshannon Ballyshannon () is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. It is located at the southern end of the county where the N3 from Dublin ends and the N15 crosses the River Erne. Incorporated in 1613, it is one of the oldest towns in Ireland. Location B ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...

, and of Rose Kelly. Born at Ballyshannon, he was educated at St Vincent's College, Castleknock and at the Royal University, Dublin, where he obtained a M.A. in 1904. He later lectured at the Royal University in Modern History and also lectured and examined in Economics at the Royal College of Science, St Stephen's Green.Irish Independent, 26 September 1944 He was called to the bar in 1917, made a Senior Counsel of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

in 1930, and became a

Bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

of the King's Inns, Dublin in 1937. He specialised particularly in company and local government law. He married Mollie, second daughter of William Hickey of Clontarf. He was first elected as an

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 nation ...

MP at the January 1910 UK general election for the constituency of East Donegal, defeating the Unionist candidate Thomas Harrison by 3,415 votes to 2,202. He was then returned unopposed in the December 1910 UK general election. At the 1918 Irish general election he was the beneficiary of an electoral pact brokered by Cardinal Michael Logue under which eight seats in northern Ireland were allocated either to the Irish Parliamentary Party or to

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 G ...

and not contested by the other.Dublin Evening Telegraph, 4 December 1918. The seats allocated to the Irish Parliamentary Party were South Down, North East Tyrone, East Donegal and South Armagh. Those allocated to Sinn Féin were Londonderry City, East Down, North West Tyrone and South Fermanagh. Breakaway candidates broke the pact in all the seats except North West Tyrone, but only in East Down did they obtain a significant vote; here the seat went in consequence to the Unionist. In the election Kelly obtained 7,596 votes to the Unionist's 4,797. An unofficial Sinn Féin candidate broke the pact but obtained a mere 46 votes. Following the election, Kelly chose not to be a member of the

First Dáil The First Dáil ( ga, An Chéad Dáil) was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 1919 to 1921. It was the first meeting of the unicameral parliament of the revolutionary Irish Republic. In the December 1918 election to the Parliament of the United ...

but remained active in the UK House of Commons representing East Donegal until his retirement in October 1922 on the establishment of the Irish Free State. He was an unsuccessful

Cumann na nGaedheal Cumann na nGaedheal (; "Society of the Gaels") was a political party in the Irish Free State, which formed the government from 1923 to 1932. In 1933 it merged with smaller groups to form the Fine Gael party. Origins In 1922 the pro-Treaty ...

candidate at the September 1927 general election for the Donegal constituency.

References

Sources

*Kenneth Ferguson (ed.) King's Inns Barristers, 1868–2004, Dublin, Honorable Society of King's Inns in Association with the Irish Legal History Society, 2005 *Michael Stenton & Stephen Lees, Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Vol.2 1886–1918, Harvester Press, Sussex, 1978 *Brian M. Walker (ed.) Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1978

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Edward 1883 births 1944 deaths Irish Parliamentary Party MPs Nationalist Party (Ireland) politicians Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Donegal constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 People from Ballyshannon Politicians from County Donegal Members of the 1st Dáil