Richard McGhee (1851 –7 April 1930) was anIrishProtestant Nationalisthome rule politician. AGeorgistLand League andtrade union activist, he was aMember of Parliament (MP) in theHouse of Commons of theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for more than 20 years.
McGhee was born inLurgan,County Armagh in January or early February 1851, the son of a tenant farmer who later became a shopkeeper. McGhee was educated at the local school in Lurgan and then went toGlasgow to become an engineeringapprentice. In 1880 he married Mary Campbell, who lived until 1949. They had five sons and a daughter.[1] One of his sons wasHenry McGhee who became theLabour MP forPenistone from 1935 to 1959.[2]
McGhee was a merchant with connections to industry inCounty Antrim.[3] He specialised in cutlery and stationery. In the 1880s he became involved in labour and trade union causes. He belonged to the AmericanKnights of Labor which had set up some branches in Britain and by 1887 was one of their organisers inCradley Heath in theBlack Country of the West Midlands. The Knights then sent McGhee to Glasgow to recruit new members.[4] McGhee stepped up his labour activism and developed an interest in radical causes, particularlyIrish Home Rule even though he was aProtestant, a member of theChurch of Ireland.[5] He was a committed follower of the American political economistHenry George and George's policies around land reform and was prominent in theIrish Land League.[6] In 1889 McGhee was a co-founder of theNational Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL)[7] and was for a time its President.[8] In 1893 McGhee resigned from the NUDL but continued to be active in related trade unionism becoming an executive council member of the International Federation of Ship, Dock and River Workers, later theInternational Transport Workers' Federation and he worked with theNational Union of Seamen on various campaigns to improve working conditions.[4]
As a strong supporter ofHome Rule, McGhee was engaged in political activity and sought a nomination for a Parliamentary seat. In March 1896 he was elected the Nationalist member forSouth Louth in aby-election and he held the seat until1900. His by-election platform was home rule on advanced nationalist principles, the endorsement of Catholic demands on education, the complete abolition of landlordism, and support for labourers.[9] After losing his seat in 1900 he returned to theHouse of Commons at theDecember 1910 general election to representMid Tyrone, beating the sittingUnionist MP, Gerald Fitzgibbon Brunskill, by a majority of 723 votes.[3] He held the seat until it was abolished in 1918.
As an MP, McGhee was described as an orthodox Irish nationalist. In 1917 one of his meetings inOmagh was broken up bySinn Féin supporters.[10] McGhee supported the Irish nationalist leaderJohn Redmond and endorsed his decision in 1914 to support the British andAllied war effort at the outbreak ofWorld War I and his condemnation of theEaster rising of 1916. But the reaction of the British government to the rising and the suspension of theHome Rule Act 1914 which Redmond had negotiated and which would have granted a strong measure of Home Rule, destroyed Redmond and his movement to achieve Home Rule through constitutional Parliamentary means.[4] McGhee did not seek re-election in 1918.
McGhee died at his home in Glasgow on 7 April 1930.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSouth Louth 1896 –1900 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forMid Tyrone December 1910 –1918 | abolished |
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