James Green Douglas (11 July 1887 – 16 September 1954) was an Irish businessman and politician. In 1922 Douglas served as the first-ever

Leas-Chathaoirleach Cathaoirleach (; Irish for chairperson; plural: ) is the title of the chair (or presiding officer) of Seanad Éireann, the sixty-member upper house of the Oireachtas, the legislature of Ireland. The current Cathaoirleach, who has held the offi ...

(deputy chairperson) of

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

, the upper house of the newly independent Irish parliament. Douglas would go on to serve in the Senead for 30 years.

Family

He was the eldest of nine children of John Douglas (1861–1931), originally of Grange,

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

, and his wife, Emily (1864–1933), daughter of John and Mary Mitton of Gortin,

Coalisland Coalisland () is a small town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with a population of 5,682 in the 2011 Census. Four miles from Lough Neagh, it was formerly a centre for coal mining. History Origins In the late 17th century coal deposits ...

. The genealogy of the Douglas family to which he belonged can be traced to Samuel Douglas of Coolhill,

Killyman Killyman () is a small village and a Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in Northern Ireland, situated on the eastern boundary of County Tyrone and extending into County Armagh. The majority of townlands are in the historic Barony (Ireland), b ...

, County Tyrone. On 14 February 1911, Douglas married Georgina (Ena) Culley (1883–1959), originally of Tirsogue,

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

. Their children were John Harold Douglas, who replaced his father as senator, and James Arthur Douglas (1915–1990).

Political career

Douglas was an Irish nationalist

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

who managed the

Irish White Cross The Irish White Cross was established on 1 February 1921 as a mechanism for distributing funds raised by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland. It was managed by the Quaker businessman, and later Irish Free State senator, James G. Doug ...

from 1920 to 1922. He was appointed by

Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...

as chairman of the committee to draft the

Constitution of the Irish Free State The Constitution of the Irish Free State ( ga, Bunreacht Shaorstát Eireann) was adopted by Act of Dáil Éireann sitting as a constituent assembly on 25 October 1922. In accordance with Article 83 of the Constitution,Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

. Douglas went on to become a very active member of

between 1922 and 1936 under the constitution he had helped to prepare. In 1922 he was elected as the first Vice-Chairman of the Senate. The Senate was abolished in 1936 and re-established under the terms of the 1937 Constitution; he was again an active Senator between 1938 and 1943, and from 1944 to 1954. The topics most associated with him during his work as Senator were international

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s and the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

References

Sources

''Century of Endeavour – Senator James G Douglas''
short biography by

Roy Johnston Roy H. W. Johnston (11 November 1929 – 13 December 2019) was an Irish theoretical physicist and republican political activist. He was a Marxist who as a member of the IRA in the 1960s argued for a ''National Liberation Strategy'' to unite the C ...

, 1999.
''Memoirs of Senator James G. Douglas – Concerned Citizen''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, James G. 1887 births 1954 deaths People of the Irish War of Independence People of the Irish Civil War (Pro-Treaty side) Independent members of Seanad Éireann Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the 1925 Seanad Members of the 1928 Seanad Members of the 1931 Seanad Members of the 1934 Seanad Members of the 2nd Seanad Members of the 3rd Seanad Members of the 5th Seanad Members of the 6th Seanad Members of the 7th Seanad Members of the 8th Seanad Irish Quakers Protestant Irish nationalists Nominated members of Seanad Éireann