George Gavan Duffy

George Gavan Duffy ( Irish Seoirse Ghabháin Uí Dhubhthaigh ) (born October 21, 1882 in Cheshire , England , † June 10, 1951 in Dublin ) was an Irish legal scholar , President of the High Court and politician of the Sinn Féin .

biography

The son of the former Prime Minister of Victoria and writer , Sir Charles Gavan Duffy , graduated in law and was later than plädierender lawyer ( Barrister -at-Law) operates.

As early as 1918, as a candidate for Sinn Féin for the constituency of South Dublin, he was elected Member of the First Irish House of Commons ( First Dáil ) and was a member until his defeat in 1923.

In 1919 he was sent together with Seán Ó Ceallaigh as a representative to Paris to campaign for the support of a separate Republic of Ireland at the peace conference there . However, both were unsuccessful in their endeavors and did not even get admission to the conference table as the other nations could not grant admission without an affront to the United Kingdom . However, Duffy stayed in Paris and tried to advertise the Irish question in the press . In September 1920, however, the French government under Prime Minister Alexandre Millerand asked him to leave France within 24 hours if he did not refrain from anti-British propaganda .

The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty signed by Duffy, lower right

After a time as envoy in Rome , he was finally sent to London as Irish plenipotentiary to begin peace negotiations with the local government. These negotiations dragged on for six weeks before Prime Minister David Lloyd George presented his ultimatum , according to which Ireland would declare within two hours whether it would opt for status as a British Dominion or to continue the war.

A short time later he was appointed Foreign Minister of the Provisional Government on January 10, 1922 after the debate on the ratification of the treaty in the House of Commons . Than to a split of the Dáil Éireann after ratification Sinn Fein into supporters of the Free State and the Republic came, he entered on July 25, 1922 by his office as Foreign Minister back because he spoke out for the adoption of the Treaty and renewed hostilities . In the following period the Irish civil war broke out .

In the general election of 1923 he lost his mandate and retired in the following years during the government of William Thomas Cosgrave from political life and resumed his practice as a lawyer.

After the Fianna Fáil came to power under Éamon de Valera , he soon played a more important role again and was appointed judge at the High Court , the highest civil and criminal court in Ireland, in 1936 . In 1946 he was appointed President of the High Court. Duffy held this office until his death five years later.

Web links

• Short biography on rulers.org
• Irish Ministries
• Entry on the side of the Oireachtas