Michael Francis Ward (1845-17 June 1881) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

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, a ...

and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

MP 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 ...

and as member of the

Home Rule League The Home Rule League (1873–1882), sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was an Irish political party which campaigned for home rule for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, until it was replaced by the Irish Parliam ...

represented Galway Borough from 1874 until 1880. Ward was born in

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

in 1845, the son of Timothy Ward, a city merchant, and his wife Catherine (''née'' Lynch). He was educated at

Summerhill College Summerhill College (aka The College of the Immaculate Conception) is a Roman Catholic voluntary secondary school for boys located in the town of Sligo in northwest Ireland. History The school was founded in 1857 by then-Bishop of Elphin, Dr La ...

at Athlone, and at

Queen's College Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

which he entered in 1861 to study medicine. He was elected auditor of the college's Literary and Debating Society for the 1866-1867 session. Ward left Galway to continue his medical studies at

Dr Steevens' Hospital Dr Steevens' Hospital (also called Dr Steevens's Hospital) ( ga, Ospidéal an Dr Steevens), one of Ireland's most distinguished eighteenth-century medical establishments, was located at Kilmainham in Dublin Ireland. It was founded under the terms ...

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, under the auspices of the

Catholic University Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical univ ...

. He became a Licentiate of the

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) is a medical professional and educational institution, which is also known as RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ireland's first private university. It was established in 1784 ...

in 1868, and returned to Galway as Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Queen's College. Ward resigned from this post in 1870 on foot of a controversy surrounding the Literary and Debating Society, then under the auditorship of his brother, Peter Ward. Leaving Galway, Ward took up a position as surgeon to the Infirmary for Children at Buckingham Street in

, and later became curator of the Catholic University Anatomical Museum. He was election agent for his college contemporary

Frank Hugh O'Donnell Frank Hugh O'Donnell (also Frank Hugh O'Cahan O'Donnell), born Francis Hugh MacDonald (9 October 1846 – 2 November 1916) was an Irish writer, journalist and nationalist politician. Early life O'Donnell was born in an army barracks in Devon, E ...

when O'Donnell contested the Galway constituency in the 1874 general election and, when O'Donnell was unseated by the courts, Ward successfully contested the ensuing by-election as an agreed Home Rule League candidate, winning with 726 votes to the Liberal candidate's 288. Ward represented Galway in the House of Commons until the 1880 election when, on the dissolution of Parliament, his whereabouts could not be established; in his place, his friend and another school and university contemporary

T.P. O'Connor Thomas Power O'Connor (5 October 1848 – 18 November 1929), known as T. P. O'Connor and occasionally as Tay Pay (mimicking his own pronunciation of the initials ''T. P.''), was an Irish nationalist politician and journalist who served as a ...

contested and won the Galway seat. Writing in 1929, O'Connor, who had been in the House of Commons for 49 years, said of Ward that 'There have been many curious figures in the House of Commons, and many tragedies of which the public know little, but assuredly never was there a stranger Member than this old friend of mine'. He provided a detailed character portrait, and also commented that in 1874 Ward found himself a Member of Parliament 'very much to his surprise, also to his dissatisfaction'.O'Connor (1929), pp.20-27 Ward accepted an offer of a position on the Government Medical Service in

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state fro ...

in 1881. He died shortly after arriving in the colony, on 17 June 1881.

Notes

References

*"The New Member for Galway", ''The Times'' (London), 14 July 1874 *Obituary, ''The Times'' (London), 13 July 1881 *Norman Atkinson, Irish Education: A History of Educational Institutions, Dublin, Allen Figgis, 1969 *T. P. O'Connor, Memoirs of an Old Parliamentarian, London, Ernest Benn, 1929 *Brian M. Walker, Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 1978 *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Michael Francis 1845 births 1881 deaths Alumni of the University of Galway Home Rule League MPs Irish Parliamentary Party MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Galway constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1874–1880 Politicians from County Galway