Seán Hales (30 March 1880 – 7 December 1922) was an Irish political activist and member of Dáil Éireann from May 1921 to December 1922.

Biography

Hales was born in

Ballinadee Ballinadee () is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It lies in the parish of Courceys, approximately 12 km by road west of Kinsale and 9 km south east of Bandon. Ballinadee is on the banks of the River Pound, which flows into the River ...

, Bandon,

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

as John Hales, one of nine children of Robert Hales, a farmer, and Margaret ( Fitzgerald) Hales. He and his brothers ( Tom, William, and Bob) were involved in the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

(IRA) during the Irish War of Independence. At the 1921 elections Hales was elected to the

Second Dáil The Second Dáil () was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 16 August 1921 until 8 June 1922. From 1919 to 1922, Dáil Éireann was the revolutionary parliament of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic. The Second Dáil consisted of members elect ...

as 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 ...

member for the Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West constituency. At the 1922 general election, he was elected to the

Third Dáil The Third Dáil was elected at the general election held on 16 June 1922. This election was required to be held under the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed on 6 December 1921. It first met on 9 September and until 6 December 1922, it was the Provisio ...

as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...

(TD) for the same constituency. He received 4,374 first preference votes (7.9%). Shortly afterwards, the Irish Civil War broke out between the pro-Treaty faction, who were in favour of setting up 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 ...

and the anti-Treaty faction, who would not accept the abolition of the

Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( ga, Poblacht na hÉireann or ) was an unrecognised revolutionary state that declared its independence from the United Kingdom in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland, but by ...

. On 7 December 1922, Hales was killed by anti-Treaty IRA men as he left the Dáil. Another TD, Pádraic Ó Máille, was also shot and badly wounded in the incident. His killing was in reprisal for the Free State's execution of anti-treaty prisoners. In revenge for Hales' killing, four republican leaders (

Joe McKelvey Joseph McKelvey (17 June 1898 – 8 December 1922) was an Irish Republican Army officer who was executed during the Irish Civil War. He participated in the anti-Treaty IRA's repudiation of the authority of the Dáil (civil government of the Iri ...

, Rory O'Connor,

Liam Mellows William Joseph Mellows ( ga, Liam Ó Maoilíosa, 25 May 1892 – 8 December 1922) was an Irish republican and Sinn Féin politician. Born in England to an English father and Irish mother, he grew up in Ashton-under-Lyne before moving to Irelan ...

and Richard Barrett) were

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

the following day, 8 December 1922. According to information passed on to playwright Ulick O'Connor, an anti-Treaty IRA volunteer named Owen Donnelly of Glasnevin was responsible for the killing of Hales. Seán Caffrey, an anti-treaty intelligence officer told O'Connor that Donnelly had not been ordered to shoot Hales specifically but was following the general order issued by Liam Lynch to shoot TDs or senators if they could. A commemorative statue of Hayes was unveiled at Bank Place in Bandon, in 1930.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hales, Sean 1880 births 1922 deaths Assassinated Irish politicians Deaths by firearm in Ireland Early Sinn Féin TDs Irish Republican Army (1919–1922) members Members of the 2nd Dáil Members of the 3rd Dáil People murdered in Ireland People of the Irish Civil War (Pro-Treaty side) Politicians from County Cork People of the Irish War of Independence 1920s murders in Ireland 1922 murders in Europe 1922 crimes in Ireland