William Trant Fagan (31 January 1801 – 16 May 1859) was an Irish writer and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) from

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

Family

Fagan was the son of James Fagan and his wife Ellen Trust. On 21 June 1827, he married Mary Addis, the daughter of Charles Addis; they had four children, and lived at Feltrim in Cork.

Career

At the general election in August 1847 he was elected as one of the two

Repeal Association The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell in 1830 to campaign for a repeal of the Acts of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland. The Association's aim was to revert Ireland to th ...

MPs for

Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city' ...

. defeating the sitting Repeal MP

Alexander McCarthy Alexander McCarthy (1801 – 1868) was an Irish Liberal, Independent Irish Party and Repeal Association politician. McCarthy was first elected Repeal Association Member of Parliament (MP) for Cork City at a by-election in 1846 caused by the res ...

and taking his seat 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 ...

. Later that year, he published ''"The life and times of Daniel O'Connell"'', prefacing the book with an address "To The people of Ireland" in which he described

O'Connell O'Connell may refer to: People *O'Connell (name), people with O'Connell as a last name or given name Schools * Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School, a high school in Arlington, Virginia Places * Mount O'Connell National Park in Queensland ...

as "the greatest man that this, or any other country, ever produced". Fagan resigned from Parliament on 14 April 1851 by appointment as

Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds Appointment to the position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds is a procedural device to allow Members of Parliament to resignation from the British House of Commons, resign from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. S ...

to become a Commissioner of Insolvency. He stood again as an independent Whig at the general election in July 1852, pledged to support to the formation of an Independent Irish Opposition. He was re-elected in

1857 Events January–March * January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, ''Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. * January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating. * Janua ...

and at the general election on 6 May 1859,Walker, op. cit., page 95 but died ten days later, aged 57. In 1844 Fagan was elected

Mayor of Cork The Lord Mayor of Cork is the head of Cork City Council and first citizen of Cork. The title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a ...

and as an Alderman a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

(JP) for

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 are ...

, and was also a Deputy Lieutenant.

References

External links

* 1801 births 1859 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Cork City UK MPs 1847–1852 UK MPs 1852–1857 UK MPs 1857–1859 UK MPs 1859–1865 Writers from Cork (city) 19th-century Irish biographers Irish male non-fiction writers Male biographers Deputy Lieutenants of County Cork Lord Mayors of Cork Irish Repeal Association MPs {{Ireland-UK-MP-stub