Politician And Governor General Of Ireland

In the late 19th century Irish politics generated nation wide excitement. The two main issues at stake were the land question and the struggle for home rule. Irish aspirations were represented at Westminster by the Nationalist Party, a mass political movement under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell. It was a tightly run organisation, dominated by a number of colourful personalities. One of the most formidable of these, Timothy Michael Healy, lived as a child in Lismore.

Healy was born in 1855 in Bantry, Co.Cork. His mother died when he was only four and in 1862 the family moved to Lismore where his father was clerk to the Poor Law Union. Young Tim was educated by the Christian Brothers in Fermoy and at the tender age of 13 emigrated to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where he worked as a railway clerk.

Becoming involved in the National movement he reported for 3 Nation newspapers on the activities of the Irish party at Westminster. He was elected a Member of Parliament in 1880 and represented various constituencies until 1918. He was at first an ardent supporter of Parnell whom he proclaimed to be the uncrowned King of Ireland; But he soon realised the danger to the movement of Parnell's liaison with Mrs Katherine O'Shea and when the scandal broke out in 1890 over the O'Shea divorce, he bitterly denounced his leader and played a prominent part in his downfall.

Healy was also a successful barrister, and his high income, debating skill and mastery of the English language gave the independence needed to play a maverick role in Irish politics during the next two decades. He was a master of sarcastic invective, a trait that earned him some powerful enemies. After the 1916 rising he came to sympathise with the Republican movement and he resigned his seat in Parliament in favour of Sinn Fein prisoner. Upon the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 he was appointed Governor General, a post he filled with dignity for the next six years. He died in 1931.