James Nicholas Dolan (16 October 1884 – 14 July 1955) was an Irish politician and TD for

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 ...

constituencies from 1918 to 1937. 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 Ir ...

, the son of John Dolan, merchant, and Bridget Fitzpatrick. His brother,

Charles Dolan Charles Francis Dolan (born October 16, 1926) is an American billionaire businessman, best known as founder of Cablevision and HBO. Today, Dolan controls Madison Square Garden Sports, MSG Networks, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Madison ...

, was 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 for North Leitrim from 1906 to

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...

, who resigned his seat to run as the first ever Sinn Féin parliamentary candidate. A

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 ...

activist, and member of the

Irish Republican Brotherhood The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB; ) was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland between 1858 and 1924.McGee, p. 15. Its counterpart in the United States ...

, James Dolan was interned in

Frongoch internment camp Frongoch internment camp at Frongoch in Merionethshire, Wales was a makeshift place of imprisonment during the First World War and the 1916 Easter Rising. History 1916 the camp housed German prisoners of war in a yellow distillery and cru ...

after the 1916 Easter Rising. He was first elected as Sinn Féin MP at the 1918 general election for Leitrim. At the 1921 general election, he was elected unopposed as a TD for the Leitrim–Roscommon North constituency, and supported the

Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...

. At the 1922 general election, he was again elected unopposed for Leitrim–Roscommon North. At the 1923 general election, he was elected for the Leitrim–Sligo constituency. Dolan joined the government of

W. T. Cosgrave William Thomas Cosgrave (5 June 1880 – 16 November 1965) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as the president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1932, leader of the Opposition in both the Free State and Ir ...

as Parliamentary Secretary to the President with responsibility as Government Chief Whip in 1924. He served in that post until 1927. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1927 to 1932. Dolan lost his Dáil seat at the 1932 general election. He regained his seat in 1933 and became a

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil � ...

TD later that year when the new party was formed. He failed to be selected for Fine Gael at the 1937 general election for the new Leitrim constituency. He contested the election as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidate, but was unsuccessful. He subsequently retired from politics.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolan, James 1884 births 1955 deaths Cumann na nGaedheal TDs Early Sinn Féin TDs Fine Gael TDs Members of the 1st Dáil Members of the 2nd Dáil Members of the 3rd Dáil Members of the 4th Dáil Members of the 5th Dáil Members of the 6th Dáil Members of the 8th Dáil Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Leitrim constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1918–1922 Parliamentary Secretaries of the 4th Dáil Parliamentary Secretaries of the 6th Dáil People of the Irish Civil War (Pro-Treaty side) Politicians from County Leitrim Government Chief Whip (Ireland)