:Seán Milroy

{{Short description|Irish revolutionary and politician (1877–1946)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| image = Seán Milroy, circa 1920s.jpg

| caption = Milroy, {{circa}} 1920s

| office = Senator

| term_start = 27 April 1938

| term_end = 7 September 1938

| constituency = Labour Panel

| office2 = Senator

| term_start2 = 12 December 1928

| term_end2 = 29 May 1936

| office3 = Teachta Dála

| term_start3 = May 1921

| term_end3 = 30 October 1924

| constituency3 = Both Cavan and Fermanagh and Tyrone

`| birth_name = John Ignatius Milroy

| birth_date = 1877

| birth_place = Cumberland, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1946|11|30|1877|df=y}}

| death_place = Dublin, Ireland

| alma_mater =

| education =

| spouse =

| children =

| party = {{Ubl|Sinn Féin|Cumann na nGaedheal|Fine Gael}}

| branch = Irish Republican Army

| unit = Irish Volunteers

| serviceyears =

| rank =

| battles = Easter Rising

| awards =

}}

Seán Milroy (1877 – 30 November 1946) was an Irish revolutionary and politician, who took part in the 1916 Easter Rising and served in the Second Dáil during the War of Independence and afterwards in the Seanad of the Irish Free State.{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/milroy-john-ignatius-sean-a5828|title=Milroy, John Ignatius ('Seán')|work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|last=Coleman|first=Marie|date=October 2009|access-date=10 December 2021}}

Biography

Milroy was born in Maryport, Cumberland, England to Scottish parents. He moved to Cork as a young adult.[http://www.kilmainhamgaolautographbooks.ie/people/sean-milroy/ Sean Milroy] Kilmainham Gaol Autographbooks He was a journalist by profession.

He was a close personal friend of Arthur Griffith and an early member of Sinn Féin, serving on its national executive from 1909 to 1912. He joined the Irish Volunteers, and in 1915 he was arrested and imprisoned for three months for a speech in which he urged Irishmen not to fight in World War I.{{cite book|last1=Kelly|first1=M. J.|title=The Fenian Ideal and Irish Nationalism, 1882-1916|date=2006|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=1843832046|page=249|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5uGXMALsfqsC&pg=PA249|access-date=3 April 2016}} He fought in the Easter Rising in 1916, and was later imprisoned in England. On 3 February 1919 he escaped from Lincoln Jail in England along with Seán McGarry and Éamon de Valera.{{cite book |last=Macardle |first=Dorothy |author-link= |date=1965 |title=The Irish Republic |url= |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |page=283 |isbn=}}

On 3 April 1918, Milroy contested a by-election for Sinn Féin in Tyrone East unsuccessfully.Macardle, p. 247 At the 1918 United Kingdom general election he stood in Tyrone North-East, but an electoral pact brokered by Cardinal Michael Logue allocated the seat to the Irish Parliamentary Party and it was not contested by Sinn Féin.Dublin Evening Telegraph. 4 December 1918. Milroy defied the pact as a breakaway candidate but received only 56 votes. He was elected a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) at the 1921 elections for both the Cavan constituency and for the Fermanagh and Tyrone constituency.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Se%C3%A1n-Milroy.D.1922-09-09/|title=Seán Milroy|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=11 April 2009}} He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted in favour of it. He strongly supported the controversial executions of Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Dick Barrett and Joe McKelvey who were executed without trial or court martial, after serving five months in prison, the day after the assassination of a pro-treaty TD.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Se%C3%A1n-Milroy.D.1922-09-09/|title=Dáil Éireann debate - Friday, 8 Dec 1922|work=Oireachtas Debate Database|access-date=26 July 2024}}{{Primary source inline|date=October 2024}}

He became a member of Cumann na nGaedheal but left the party and resigned from his seat on 30 October 1924 along with seven other TDs in opposition to the Government's actions to the so-called Irish Army Mutiny. He contested the June 1927 general election unsuccessfully.{{cite web|url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1111|title=Seán Milroy|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=11 April 2009}}

In later years, he made up with his former colleagues and was elected to Seanad Éireann, serving for both Cumann na nGaedheal and later for Fine Gael from 1928 until the Free State Seanad was abolished in 1936. He was re-elected to the new Seanad in 1938, following the 1937 general election but failed to be re-elected following the 1938 general election.

References

Sources

Todd Andrews (1979), Dublin Made Me.
Tim Pat Coogan (1995), De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow.
Memoirs of Senator Joseph Connolly: A Founder of Modern Ireland. J. Anthony Gaughan (ed), 1996.

Piece 210-005; John Milroy (1915).pdf|page=7|Colonial office intelligence file for John Milroy

Piece 207-129; John Milroy (1922).pdf|page=8|British Army military intelligence file for John Milroy

Category:1877 births

Category:1946 deaths

Category:Early Sinn Féin TDs

Category:Cumann na nGaedheal TDs

Category:Cumann na nGaedheal senators

Category:People of the Easter Rising

Category:Fine Gael senators

Category:Irish anti–World War I activists

Category:Irish people of Scottish descent

Category:Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood