Francis Patrick Fahy (23 May 1879 – 12 July 1953) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1932 to 1951. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1919 to his death in 1953.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Frank-Fahy.D.1919-01-21/|title=Frank Fahy|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=8 January 2008}}

He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for 35 years, first for Sinn Féin and later as a member of Fianna Fáil, before becoming Ceann Comhairle (chairperson) for over 19 years.{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/fahy-francis-patrick-frank-a2988|title=Fahy, Francis Patrick|work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|last=White|first=Lawrence William|last2=Ferriter|first2=Diarmaid|access-date=5 January 2022}}

Early life and revolutionary period

Fahy was born on 23 May 1879 in the townland of Glanatallin, Kilchreest, County Galway,{{Cite web|url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1879/02914/2067986.pdf|title=General Registrar's Office|website=IrishGenealogy.ie|access-date=4 February 2019}} the eldest of 6 children born to John Fahy and Maria Jones. His father taught at the local National School. After an early education at his father's school in Kilchreest, he attended Mungret College in County Limerick. He later studied at University College Galway. He earned a Bachelor of Arts and a H.Dip. in Education, and a Diploma in Science. From 1906 to 1921 he taught Latin, Irish and Science at Castleknock College (St Vincent's College), Dublin. Fahy qualified as a barrister in 1927 at King's Inns, Dublin and also taught at the Christian Brothers school in Tralee. He was at one time General Secretary of the Conradh na Gaeilge. He married Anna Barton of Tralee, a metal artist and member of the Cumann na mBan in 1908. They had no children.

As Company Captain of C Company, 1 Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, Fahy commanded the contingent that occupied the Four Courts during the 1916 rising. Arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison, he spent terms in several British jails. Released in the general amnesty of June 1917, he was active in the reorganisation of the Volunteer movement, addressing public meetings throughout the country. Fahy later applied to the Irish government for a service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 and was awarded 5 and 1/6 years service in 1937 at Grade D for his service with the Irish Volunteers from 23 April 1916 to June 1917.Irish Military Archives, Military Service (1916-1923) Pension Collection, Frank Fahy, MSP34REF37327. Available online at http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/search.aspx?formtype=advanced.

Political career

File:Frank Fahy .PNG

Fahy was first elected at the 1918 general election as a Sinn Féin Member of Parliament (MP) for Galway South, but as the party was pledged to abstentionism he did not take his seat in the British House of Commons and joined the revolutionary First Dáil. He was re-elected as TD for Galway in 1921 general election and having sided with the anti-treaty forces following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, he did not take his seat in either the 3rd Dáil or the 4th Dáil. Referring to the treaty, in 1922 Fahy said: "Can a Treaty based on fear, naked and unashamed, be a sound basis for friendship between the two peoples?"{{cite book |last=Macardle |first=Dorothy |author-link= |date=1965 |title=The Irish Republic |url= |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |page=631 |isbn=}}

He joined Fianna Fáil when the party was founded in 1926, and along with the 42 other Fianna Fáil TDs he took his seat in the 5th Dáil on 12 August 1927,{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0020/D.0020.192708120002.html|title=Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 20, 12 August 1927: New deputies take their seats|publisher=Houses of the Oireachtas|access-date=8 January 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607101317/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0020/D.0020.192708120002.html|archive-date=7 June 2011|df=dmy-all}} three days before the Dáil tied 71 votes to 71 on a motion of no confidence in W. T. Cosgrave's Cumann na nGaedheal government (a tie broken by the Ceann Comhairle).{{Cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1927-08-16/4/|title=PUBLIC BUSINESS. – NO CONFIDENCE MOTION – Dáil Éireann (5th Dáil)|date=16 August 1927|access-date=28 August 2019|website=Houses of the Oireachtas|archive-date=28 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828093602/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1927-08-16/4/|url-status=live}} After the government won two by-elections later that month, it dissolved the Dáil, leading to a fresh election.

After the September 1927 election, Cosgrave was able to form a minority government with the support of the Farmers' Party and some independent TDs. However, in the 1932 general election, Fianna Fáil won just under half of the seats and formed a government with the support of the Labour Party. The first business was of the 7th Dáil was the election of the Ceann Comhairle, and on 9 March 1932 Fahy was nominated for the position by Seán T. O'Kelly, winning the vote by a margin of 78 to 71.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1932-03-09/2/|title=Election of Ceann Comhairle – Dáil Éireann (7th Dáil) – Vol. 41 No. 1|date=9 March 1932|access-date=6 August 2022|website=Houses of the Oireachtas|archive-date=17 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817180425/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1932-03-09/2/|url-status=live}}

He held the post until Fianna Fáil lost the 1951 election, and at the start of the 14th Dáil he did not offer himself for re-election as Ceann Comhairle. He was succeeded by the Labour TD Patrick Hogan.{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0126/D.0126.195106130002.html|title=Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 126, 13 June 1951: Election of Ceann Comhairle|publisher=Houses of the Oireachtas|access-date=8 January 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607101528/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0126/D.0126.195106130002.html|archive-date=7 June 2011|df=dmy-all}} His 19 years in the chair remains the longest of any Ceann Comhairle, with the only other person to exceed 10 years as Ceann Comhairle being his successor, Patrick Hogan.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/office-holders/former-office-holders/ |title=Former office holders |website=Houses of the Oireachtas|access-date=3 December 2022}}

The 1932 election was the last which Fahy contested; as Ceann Comhairle, he was automatically re-elected at the next seven elections. When his Galway constituency was divided for the 1937 general election, he was returned unopposed for the new Galway East, and similarly in 1948 for the new Galway South constituency.{{cite web|url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1282|title=Frank Fahy|work=ElectionsIreland.org |access-date=8 January 2008}}

Fahy died on 12 July 1953,{{cite news|work=Derry Journal|date=13 July 1953|title=Death of Mr Frank Fahy TD|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001123/19530713/084/0005|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }} and is buried at Deans Grange Cemetery, Dublin. The Galway South by-election held after his death was won by the Fianna Fáil candidate Robert Lahiffe.{{cite web|url=http://www.electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=1951B&cons=128&ref=57|title=Galway South by-election, 21 August 1953|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=8 January 2008}}

File:Piece 201-001; Captain Frank Fahy, Irish Volunteers (1915-1918).pdf|page=18|Captain Frank Fahy, Irish Volunteers (1915-1918); Dublin Castle Records, CO 904/193-216

File:Piece 207-078 Frank Fahy (1922).pdf|alt=Frank Fahy; Easter Rising Records. WO 35/206-207|page=6|Frank Fahy; Easter Rising Records. WO 35/206-207

References

External links

{{cite TIWW |article=Fahy, Francis Patrick |page=76 }}
{{cite web| website=Kilmainham Gaol |url=http://www.kilmainhamgaolautographbooks.ie/people/frank-fahy/ |title=Frank Fahy}}

{{s-ttl|title = Member of Parliament for Galway South

|years = 1918–1922}}

{{s-ttl|title = Teachta Dála for Galway South

|years = 1918–1921}}

{{s-ttl|title = Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann

|years = 1932–1951}}

Category:1879 births

Category:1953 deaths

Category:Alumni of the University of Galway

Category:Burials at Deans Grange Cemetery

Category:Early Sinn Féin TDs

Category:Fianna Fáil TDs