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Cahir Healy

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For the hurler and Gaelic footballer who is a great grandson of the former, seeCahir Healy (dual player).

Portrait of Cahir Healy by Lafayette, July 7, 1932

Cahir Healy(2 December 1877 – 8 February 1970) was anIrishpolitician.[1]

Background[edit]

Born inMountcharlesinCounty Donegal,Ireland he became a journalist working on various local papers. He joined theIrish RepublicanorganizationSinn Féinat its founding in 1905.

Opposition to partition[edit]

Healy later became aAnti Partitionistand campaigned against the inclusion ofCounty FermanaghandCounty TyroneintoNorthern Ireland,as they hadIrish nationalistmajorities (seePartition of Ireland). With the pending partition of Ireland Healy worked with the cabinet of the southern Irish parliament (Second Dáil) and in 1922 was a member ofMichael Collin'sspecial Advisory Committee on the North-East.[2]In August 1921 Healy was part of a Fermanagh nationalist delegation that met with PresidentÉamon de Valerawhere they made clear their feelings on a Northern Irish Parliament: "Fermanagh by a large majority...resolved that it would not submit to the partition parliament in Ulster."[3]In a letter fromLloyd Georgeto de Valera (dated 7 September 1921) regarding the inclusion of Tyrone and Fermanagh into a new northern state, the British Prime Minister stated that his government had a very weak case on the issue of "forcing these two counties against their will" into Northern Ireland.[4]

Following the 22 May 1922 assassination ofWilliam J. Twaddell(a Unionist Member of Parliament in Belfast) Healy wasinternedfor eighteen months along with 300 others under brutal conditions on the prison shipHMSArgenta.[5]Healy is quoted on the reasons for his arrest and internment: "All my life, I have been a man of peace. It is not, therefore, because they feared that I would disturb the peace of Northern Ireland that they dragged me away from my wife and family, but for political reasons. I have been engaged in preparing the case for the inclusion of these areas (Fermanagh and Tyrone) in the Free State. To get me out of the way, local politicians urged my arrest."[6]

Parliamentary representative[edit]

Healy was elected in the1922 UK general electionto representFermanagh and Tyroneas aNationalist PartyMP, with the support of Sinn Féin. Healy was re-elected in 1923, but remained in custody until February 1924 and was prohibited from entering the western part of County Fermanagh (he did not defend his seat).[7]In June 1924 Healy pressed the government to compensate the thousands of Northern Ireland citizens that were forced to flee Belfast during serious sectarian rioting/violence (seeThe Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922)).[8]

Healy was also elected to theNorthern Ireland House of Commonsin the1925 Northern Ireland general election,but did not take his seat until 1927 due to the Nationalistabstentionistpolicy. In his fight against partition, Healy did not support the use of physical force or abstentionism: "...physical force only consolidates Unionist opinion against us, and result in injury to Catholics as a whole...if abstention is to become a policy...it should be abstention from public boards...as well as refusal to pay rates and taxes. If this policy of civil disobedience is not feasible (and I admit it is not), then abstention from Stormont is just an insincere gesture."[9]In 1928 Healy and the influential nationalist politicianJoe Devlinbecame founder members of theNational League of the Northwhich was committed to bringing about Irish reunification through consent and parliamentary means.[10]Whenever Healy or Devlin raised issues relating to Northern Ireland (in both the British and Northern Ireland Parliaments), they were routinely ruled out of order.[11]In 1929, with the break-up of the large Fermanagh and Tyrone constituency, he switched to sit for the new seat ofSouth Fermanagh.In a1931 by-electionhe was again elected for Fermanagh and Tyrone to the British Parliament but stood down again in 1935. In a 24 April 1934 speech on the floor of the Northern Ireland Parliament Healy made clear his feelings on the ruling Unionist government and its treatment of Catholics:

"We know there is today no place for a Catholic in any public office. They are banned more effectively by the bigotry, secret and open, of the Northern Ministers, than they were in the days before the passing of theCatholic Emancipation.But for all that, we are not despairing...What Cromwell attempted in vain you will also attempt in vain. God and right are with us and will prevail over all your machinations. This is not the last generation. Neither will your threats cause us to change our ideals, of a united and free Ireland ".[12]

World War II and beyond[edit]

Healy was interned again by the United Kingdom government for a year during theSecond World War,underDefence Regulation 18Band held inBrixton Prisonuntil December 1942.[13]After the war Healy helped launch the broad basedIrish Anti-Partition Leaguewhich worked to foster public and political opinion, in Britain and the United States, against partition.[14]Healy also worked with the Labour Party in Britain and helped establish the parliamentary pressure groupFriends of Ireland (UK).In 1945 Healy wrote the widely read anti partition pamphletThe Mutilation of a Nationwhich sold over 10.000 copies.[15]In 1950 he was elected to the British House of Commons for a third time, on this occasion representing Fermanagh and South Tyrone. He finally sat in the British Parliament in 1952 and held the seat until he stood down in 1955. He left the Northern Ireland House of Commons in 1965, by which point he was theFather of the House.

Later life[edit]

Healy became an insurance official inEnniskillenbut continued to write, his output including journalism, poetry and short stories. He was a correspondent for a number of Irish and American papers. Over the years Healy wrote hundreds of historical articles, scripts and plays for the Irish, British and United States media.[16]Possessing a special interest in Irish history and folklore, in the 1960s he was a founder of theUlster Folk and Transport Museum.[17]Cahir Healy was a leader of northern nationalists and a self-educated man who made major contributions to Ireland's political, cultural and literary heritage. He died on 8 February 1970.

References[edit]

  1. ^Cahir Healy Papers(PDF)(Report). Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. November 2007. p. 3.Retrieved26 January2023.
  2. ^Cahir Healy Papers, pg 28
  3. ^Cahir Healy Papers, pg 7.
  4. ^Phoenix, Eamon (1994),Northern nationalism: nationalist politics, partition and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland 1890-1940,Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, Pg 146, ISBN 9780901905550
  5. ^Phoenix, Eamon & Parkinson, Alan (2010),Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900-2000,Four Courts Press, Dublin, Pg 140, ISBN 978 1 84682 189 9
  6. ^Phoenix and Parkinson, pgs 140-141
  7. ^MacEoin, Uinseann (1997).The IRA in the Twilight Years: 1923–1948.Dublin: Argenta. p. 96.ISBN9780951117248.
  8. ^Healy, Cahir (2 June 1924).Irish Distress (Relief)(Speech). Parliamentary debate. Commons sitting: Hansard.Retrieved25 January2023.
  9. ^Cahir Healy Papers, pg 17.
  10. ^"Healy, Cahir".Dictionary of Irish Biography.Royal Irish Academy. October 2009. 10.3318/dib.003890.v1.Retrieved25 January2023.
  11. ^Phoenix & Parkinson, Pg 101.
  12. ^Reid, Gerard (1999),Great Irish Voices,Irish Academic Press, Dublin, pp. 262-63, ISBN 0-7165-2674-3
  13. ^"Mr Cahir Healy Irish Nationalist M.P."cited from The Times.Obits. 10 February 1970.Retrieved25 January2023.
  14. ^Cahir Healy Papers, pgs 14-15
  15. ^Phoenix and Parkinson, pg 149
  16. ^Cahir Healy Papers, p. 3
  17. ^Phoenix and Parkinson, p. 151

External links[edit]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency MPforFermanagh and Tyrone
1922–1924
With:Thomas Harbison 		Succeeded by
Preceded by MPforFermanagh and Tyrone
1931–1935
With:Joseph Devlinto 1934
Joseph Francis Stewartfrom 1934 		Succeeded by
New constituency MPforFermanagh and South Tyrone
1950–1955 		Succeeded by
Parliament of Northern Ireland
Preceded by MPforFermanagh and Tyrone
1925–1929
With:Edward Archdale
Alexander Donnelly
William Thomas Miller
Rowley Elliott
Thomas Harbison
James Cooper
John McHugh 		Constituency abolished
New constituency MPforSouth Fermanagh
1929–1965 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Father of the House
1953–1965 		Succeeded by
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