Seán Hales (30 March 1880 – 7 December 1922) was an Irish political activist and member of

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( ; , ) is the lower house and principal chamber of the Oireachtas, which also includes the president of Ireland and a senate called Seanad Éireann.Article 15.1.2° of the Constitution of Ireland reads: "The Oireachtas shall co ...

from May 1921 to December 1922.

Biography

Born John Hales 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 Rive ...

, Bandon,

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

, 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 Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...

(IRA) during the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

. At the 1921 elections Hales was elected to the

Second Dáil The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

as a

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

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

Third Dáil Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( ; ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish language, Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The official Engli ...

(TD) for the same constituency. He received 4,374 first-preference votes (7.9%). Shortly afterwards, the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...

broke out between the pro-Treaty faction, who were in favour of setting up the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

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

Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( or ) was a Revolutionary republic, revolutionary state that Irish Declaration of Independence, declared its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdict ...

On 7 December 1922, Hales was killed by anti-Treaty IRA men as he left the Dáil. Another TD,

Pádraic Ó Máille Pádraic Ó Máille (23 February 1878 – 19 January 1946) was an Irish politician. He was a founder member of Sinn Féin and of the Conradh na Gaeilge in Galway. He was a member of the Irish Volunteers from 1917 to 1921. He was born in Kilmil ...

, 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 without trial or court martial. He participated in the Anti-Treaty IRA's repudiation of the authority of the D ...

, Rory O'Connor,

Liam Mellows William Joseph Mellows (, 25 May 1892 – 8 December 1922) was an Irish republicanism, 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 Ireland, ...

and Richard Barrett) were

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

the following day, 8 December 1922. According to information passed on to playwright

Ulick O'Connor Ulick O'Connor ( ; 12 October 1928 – 7 October 2019) was an Irish writer, historian and critic. Early life Born in Rathgar, County Dublin, in 1928 to Matthew O'Connor, the Dean of the Royal College of Surgeons, O'Connor attended Garbally ...

, 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

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

s 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 People murdered in 1922 People from Bandon, County Cork Murder victims from County Cork Politicians assassinated in the 1920s