Timothy Michael Healy

Timothy Michael Healy

Timothy "Tim" Michael Healy ( Irish Tadhg Ó hÉalaighthe ) (born May 17, 1855 in Bantry , County Cork , Ireland , † May 26, 1931 in Chapelizod , County Dublin ) was an Irish politician .

biography

Tim Healy began his political career as Secretary of the Newcastle City Council, the British Home Rule Association , founded in Manchester in 1870 by lawyer Isaac Butt . In 1878 he became a journalist in London for the daily newspaper "The Nation" and wrote a weekly column for it on the work of the Nationalist Party under Charles Stewart Parnell in the British House of Commons .

Healy's signature on a decree on the Irish Free State passport (1927)

After his release from custody for participating in violent actions by the Irish Land League , he was elected in 1880 as a representative of the Nationalist Party to the House of Commons, in which he represented the constituency of Wexford . He quickly made a name for himself as a speaker and for his knowledge of the most extensive legislative procedures in parliament. In doing so, he became a recognized expert on Ireland's question and namesake of the so-called "Healy Clause" in the Land Act of 1881, which protected farm tenants from rent increases by landowners.

This not only made him popular in southern Ireland, but also resulted in his party gaining votes in the Protestant province of Ulster . In 1886 there was a break with Parnell. However, he remained affiliated with the Irish Nationalist Party, although he was also a strong supporter of the Irish Home Rule offerings .

After his disappointment with the goals of the Liberals and the Irish nationalists after the Easter Rising in 1916, he became a supporter of Sinn Féin, founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith , after 1917 . However, this led to an end of his membership in the House of Commons in 1918 after he had renounced a new candidacy in favor of a Sinn Féin candidate.

Because of his reputation as elder statesman , he was appointed first Governor General of the Irish Free State in 1922 by both Great Britain and Ireland . He held this office until his resignation in 1927. James McNeill was his successor .

Web links

• rulers.org