Sir Thomas Henry Grattan Esmonde, 11th Baronet, (21 September 1862 – 15 September 1935) was an Irish
Home Rule
Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...
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: Th ...
politician and author.
Politics
Esmonde was elected
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 the constituencies
South Dublin 1885–1892,
West Kerry 1892–1900 and
North Wexford 1900–1918 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. T ...
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 Grea ...
. He also sat 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 ...
Senator in the
Oireachtas from 1922 to 1934.
He was
High Sheriff of County Waterford in 1887.
Personal life
He was the son of
Sir John Esmonde, 10th Baronet and his wife Louisa, daughter of
Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan (3 July 1746 – 4 June 1820) was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century from Britain. He was a Member of the Irish Parliament (MP) from 1775 to 18 ...
.
In July 1891, he married Alice Donovan of
Tralee
Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in Count ...
.
Alice and Esmonde had five children:
*Alngelda Barbara Mary Grattan Esmonde
*Eithne Moira Grattan Esmonde; married her second cousin
Sir Anthony Esmonde, 15th Baronet
*Patricia Alison Louisa Grattan Esmonde
*
Sir Osmond Esmonde, 12th Baronet (1896–1936)
*John Henry Grattan Esmonde (1899–1916); killed in the
Battle of Jutland
Alice died in December 1922, and in September 1924 Esmonde married
Anna Frances Levins.
[
Esmonde's home, Ballynastragh House, located near ]Gorey
Gorey () is a market town in north County Wexford, Ireland. It is beside the main M11 Dublin to Wexford road. The town is also connected to the railway network along the same route. Local newspapers include the ''Gorey Guardian''.
As a growi ...
, County Wexford, and dating from the 17th century, was burned down on 9 March 1923 by members of the anti-Treaty 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 ...
. The house was rebuilt on a much smaller scale in 1937.
Esmonde was a frequent traveller and author of articles on Irish folklore and antiquities, as well as a memoir, ''Hunting Memories of Many Lands'' (1920). He died in Dublin, six days before his 73rd birthday.
In 1902 he founded the Enniscorthy Echo in co-operation with William Sears.
Honours
Knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani, links=yes, OESSH), also called Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, is a Catholic order of knighthood under ...
Notable Irish Members (Historic): Sir Thomas Grattan Esmonde
/ref>
See also
*Families in the Oireachtas
There is a tradition in Irish politics of having family members succeed each other, frequently in the same parliamentary seat. This article lists families where two or more members of that family have been members ( TD or Senator) of either of th ...
References
External links
Esmonde Family Tree
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Esmonde, Thomas Henry
1862 births
1935 deaths
Baronets in the Baronetage of Ireland
Irish Parliamentary Party MPs
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922)
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Kerry constituencies (1801–1922)
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Wexford constituencies (1801–1922)
UK MPs 1885–1886
UK MPs 1886–1892
UK MPs 1892–1895
UK MPs 1895–1900
UK MPs 1900–1906
UK MPs 1906–1910
UK MPs 1910
UK MPs 1910–1918
Members of the 1922 Seanad
Members of the 1925 Seanad
Members of the 1928 Seanad
Members of the 1931 Seanad
Politicians from County Wexford
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
High Sheriffs of County Waterford
Knights of the Holy Sepulchre
Independent members of Seanad Éireann
People from Gorey
Anti-Parnellite MPs