John O'Dowd (Sligo MP) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
John O'Dowd (13 February
[RootsWeb: DOWD-L Re: [DOWD] FW: Genealogy]
/ref> 1856 – 26 October 1937[Irish Independent, 27/10/1937]) was Irish Irish people">Irish Nationalist Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom">Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
for
North Sligo, March–September 1900, and for
South Sligo, 1900–18.
Life
He was born in Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo
but emigrated to the US at an early age, returning in the later 1870s to Bunninadden,
Sligo, where he was a farmer
[McDowell (1970), pp.91-2] and lived for the rest of his life.
He was connected with Irish political movements from 1880 onwards and in 1881-82 was imprisoned as a ‘suspect’ under the then coercion legislation.
He was a veteran of the
Land League and active in the United Irish League">Irish National Land League">Land League and active in the United Irish League. He was associated with the Irish Republican Brotherhood after his return from the US. For many years he was chairman of Sligo County Council and his son later became accountant to the Council.
He was elected unopposed to represent North Sligo on 7 March 1900 following the resignation of Bernard Collery, and transferred unopposed to his native South Sligo constituency at the general election later that year. He held this seat unopposed through successive general elections until December 1918, when he was defeated by the
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 ...
candidate
Alexander McCabe
Alexander McCabe ( ga, Alasdar Mac Cába; 5 June 1886 – 31 May 1972) was an Irish Sinn Féin (later Cumann na nGaedheal) politician.
Early life
He was born in Keash, County Sligo in 1886. He was educated at Summerhill College, Sligo. He won a ...
by 9,113 votes to 1,988. O’Dowd had made representations on McCabe's behalf when the latter had been tried, and acquitted, for possession of explosives.
Maume (1999) states that O’Dowd was accused of corruption and of organising violence against Sinn Féin supporters during the North Leitrim by-election of 1908, and that he was himself beaten up and severely injured by Sinn Féin supporters on polling day in 1918.
[Maume (1999) pp.213, 239, citing Farry (1992), pp.152-3]
As a local authority representative, O’Dowd was a member of the
Irish Convention
The Irish Convention was an assembly which sat in Dublin, Ireland from July 1917 until March 1918 to address the ''Irish question'' and other constitutional problems relating to an early enactment of self-government for Ireland, to debate its wid ...
of 1917–18, which unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile North and South Ireland.
He published a volume of poems, ''Lays of South Sligo'', and contributed poems to
T. D. Sullivan
Timothy Daniel Sullivan (29 May 1827 – 31 March 1914) was an Irish nationalist, journalist, politician and poet who wrote the Irish national hymn "God Save Ireland", in 1867. He served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1886 to 1888 and a Member of ...
’s ''Weekly News''.
Publication
''Lays of South Sligo: A Few Wild Flowers of National Poetry'', Dublin, Gill, 1888; 2nd ed. 1889
Notes
References
*
*
*
*James McConnel (2004) ‘ "Fenians at Westminster": The Edwardian Irish Parliamentary Party and the Legacy of the New Departure’, Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 34, No. 133, May, p. 44
*
*
External links
*
A lengthy and detailed biography of John O’Dowd by Frank Mara (2001) which however does not cite any sources.This appears to have been taken verbatim from "Worthies of Sligo" by John McTernan (Revised Edition, Sligo, 1994).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odowd, John
1856 births
1937 deaths
Irish poets
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Sligo constituencies (1801–1922)
20th-century Irish farmers
UK MPs 1895–1900
UK MPs 1900–1906
UK MPs 1906–1910
UK MPs 1910
UK MPs 1910–1918