Cahir Healy

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For the hurler and Gaelic footballer who is a great grandson of the former, see Cahir Healy (dual player).

Portrait of Cahir Healy by Lafayette, July 7, 1932

Cahir Healy (2 December 1877 – 8 February 1970) was an Irish politician.[1]

Background

Born in

Irish Republican organization Sinn Féin
at its founding in 1905.

Opposition to partition

Healy later became a

Lloyd George to de Valera (dated 7 September 1921) regarding the inclusion of Tyrone and Fermanagh into a new northern state, the British Prime Minister stated that his government had a very weak case on the issue of "forcing these two counties against their will" into Northern Ireland.[4]

Following the 22 May 1922 assassination of William J. Twaddell (a Unionist Member of Parliament in Belfast) Healy was interned for eighteen months along with 300 others under brutal conditions on the prison ship HMS Argenta.[5] Healy is quoted on the reasons for his arrest and internment: "All my life, I have been a man of peace. It is not, therefore, because they feared that I would disturb the peace of Northern Ireland that they dragged me away from my wife and family, but for political reasons. I have been engaged in preparing the case for the inclusion of these areas (Fermanagh and Tyrone) in the Free State. To get me out of the way, local politicians urged my arrest."[6]

Parliamentary representative

Healy was elected in the

The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922)).[8]

Healy was also elected to the

Catholic Emancipation. But for all that, we are not despairing...What Cromwell attempted in vain you will also attempt in vain. God and right are with us and will prevail over all your machinations. This is not the last generation. Neither will your threats cause us to change our ideals, of a united and free Ireland".[12]

World War II and beyond

Healy was interned again by the United Kingdom government for a year during the

Brixton Prison until December 1942.[13] After the war Healy helped launch the broad based Irish Anti-Partition League which worked to foster public and political opinion, in Britain and the United States, against partition .[14] Healy also worked with the Labour Party in Britain and helped establish the parliamentary pressure group Friends of Ireland (UK). In 1945 Healy wrote the widely read anti partition pamphlet The Mutilation of a Nation which sold over 10.000 copies.[15] In 1950 he was elected to the British House of Commons for a third time, on this occasion representing Fermanagh and South Tyrone. He finally sat in the British Parliament in 1952 and held the seat until he stood down in 1955. He left the Northern Ireland House of Commons in 1965, by which point he was the Father of the House
.

Later life

Healy became an insurance official in Enniskillen but continued to write, his output including journalism, poetry and short stories. He was a correspondent for a number of Irish and American papers. Over the years Healy wrote hundreds of historical articles, scripts and plays for the Irish, British and United States media.[16] Possessing a special interest in Irish history and folklore, in the 1960s he was a founder of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.[17] Cahir Healy was a leader of northern nationalists and a self-educated man who made major contributions to Ireland's political, cultural and literary heritage. He died on 8 February 1970.

References

  1. ^ Cahir Healy Papers (PDF) (Report). Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. November 2007. p. 3. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  2. ^ Cahir Healy Papers, pg 28
  3. ^ Cahir Healy Papers, pg 7.
  4. ^ Phoenix, Eamon (1994), Northern nationalism: nationalist politics, partition and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland 1890-1940, Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, Pg 146, ISBN 9780901905550
  5. ^ Phoenix, Eamon & Parkinson, Alan (2010), Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900-2000, Four Courts Press, Dublin, Pg 140, ISBN 978 1 84682 189 9
  6. ^ Phoenix and Parkinson, pgs 140-141
  7. ISBN 9780951117248
    .
  8. ^ Healy, Cahir (2 June 1924). Irish Distress (Relief) (Speech). Parliamentary debate. Commons sitting: Hansard. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  9. ^ Cahir Healy Papers, pg 17.
  10. ^ "Healy, Cahir". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Royal Irish Academy. October 2009. 10.3318/dib.003890.v1. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  11. ^ Phoenix & Parkinson, Pg 101.
  12. ^ Reid, Gerard (1999), Great Irish Voices, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, pp. 262-63, ISBN 0-7165-2674-3
  13. ^ "Mr Cahir Healy Irish Nationalist M.P." cited from The Times. Obits. 10 February 1970. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  14. ^ Cahir Healy Papers, pgs 14-15
  15. ^ Phoenix and Parkinson, pg 149
  16. ^ Cahir Healy Papers, p. 3
  17. ^ Phoenix and Parkinson, p. 151

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency
MP for Fermanagh and Tyrone
1922–1924
With: Thomas Harbison
 Succeeded by
Preceded by
Joseph Francis Stewart
from 1934 		Succeeded by
New constituency
MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone
1950–1955
 Succeeded by
Parliament of Northern Ireland
Preceded by
John McHugh
 		Constituency abolished
New constituency
MP for South Fermanagh

1929–1965 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Father of the House
1953–1965 		Succeeded by
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