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Tim Healy | |
|---|---|
 Healy,c. 1915 | |
| Governor-General of the Irish Free State | |
| In office 6 December 1922 – 31 January 1928 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Preceded by | New office |
| Succeeded by | James McNeill |
| Member of Parliament | |
| In office 1880–1918 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1855-05-17)17 May 1855 Bantry,County Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 26 March 1931(1931-03-26) (aged 75) Chapelizod,County Dublin, Ireland |
| Spouse | Erina Sullivan (m. 1882, d. 1927) |
| Profession | Politician |
Timothy Michael Healy,KC (17 May 1855 – 26 March 1931) was anIrishbarrister,nationalist politician, journalist and author. His political career began in the 1880s when he became aMember of Parliament (MP) in theHouse of Commons and continued into the 1920s, when he was appointed as the firstgovernor-general of the Irish Free State.[1]
He was born inBantry,County Cork, the second son of Maurice Healy, clerk of the BantryPoor Law Union, and Eliza (née Sullivan) Healy. His elder brother,Thomas Healy (1854–1924), became asolicitor andMember of Parliament (MP) (1892-1900) forNorth Wexford. His younger brother,Maurice Healy (1859–1923), with whom he held a lifelong close relationship, also became a solicitor and served at Westminster as MP forCork City[2] between 1885 and 1918.
His father was descended from a family line which in holding to theirCatholic faith, lost their lands,[3][when?] which he compensated for by being a scholarly gentleman.
Timothy Michael Healy was educated at theChristian Brothers school inFermoy, and was otherwise largely self-educated, in 1869 at the age of fourteen going to live with his uncle,Timothy Daniel Sullivan MP, inDublin.[citation needed]
He then moved to England finding employment in 1871 with theNorth Eastern Railway Company inNewcastle-upon-Tyne. There he became deeply involved in theIrish Home Rule politics of the local Irish community. After leaving for London in 1878 Healy worked as a confidential clerk in a factory owned by his relative, then worked as a parliamentary correspondent forThe Nation newspaper owned by his uncle, writing numerous articles in support of Parnell, the newly emergent and more militant home rule leader, and his policy of parliamentaryobstructionism.[2]
Parnell admired Healy's intelligence and energy after Healy had established himself as part of Parnell's broader political circle. He became Parnell's secretary but was denied contact to Parnell's small inner circle of political colleagues.[citation needed]
Parnell, however, brought Healy into theIrish Parliamentary Party (IPP) and supported him as a nationalist candidate for a by-election toWexford in 1880 following the death ofWilliam Archer Redmond, againstJohn Redmond, the son of the deceased MP. After John Redmond stood aside, Healy was returned unopposed to parliament.[citation needed]
In parliament, Healy did not physically cut an imposing figure but impressed by the application of sheer intelligence, diligence and volatile use of speech when he achieved theHealy Clause in theLand Law (Ireland) Act 1881 which provided that no further rent should in future be charged on tenant's improvements. By the mid-1880s Healy had already acquired a reputation for a scurrilousness of tone. He married his cousin Eliza Sullivan in 1882, they had three daughters and three sons and he enjoyed a happy and intense family life, closely interlinked both by friendship and intermarriage with the Sullivans of west Cork.[2]
Through his reputation as a friend of the farmers, after having been imprisoned for four months following an agrarian case, and backed by Parnell, he was elected in aMonaghan by-election in June 1883, deemed to be the climax in the Healy–Parnell relationship. In 1884 he was called to theIrish bar as a barrister (in 1889 to the inner bar asKing's Counsel, in London in 1910). His reputation allowed him to build an extensive legal practice, particularly in land cases. He was elected forSouth Londonderry in 1885, but lost to aLiberal Unionist in 1886. In the1887 North Longford by-election, he was returned unopposed.
Prompted by the depression in the prices of dairy products and cattle in the mid-1880 as well as bad weather for a number of years, many tenant farmers unable to pay their rents were left under the threat of eviction. Healy devised a strategy to secure a reduction in rent from the landlords which became known as thePlan of Campaign, organised in 1886 amongst others byTimothy Harrington.
Initially a passionate supporter of Parnell, he became disenchanted with his leader after Healy opposed Parnell's nomination of CaptainWilliam O'Shea to stand fora by-election in Galway city. At the time O'Shea was separated from his wife,Katharine O'Shea, with whom Parnell was secretly living. Healy objected to this, as the party had not been consulted and he believed Parnell was putting his personal relationship before the national interest. When Parnell travelled to Galway to support O’Shea, Healy was forced to back down.
In 1890, O'Shea sued his wife for divorce, citing Parnell as co-respondent. Healy and most of Parnell's associates rejected Parnell's continuing leadership of the party, believing it was recklessly endangering the party's alliance withGladstonianLiberalism. Healy became Parnell's most outspoken critic. When Parnell asked his colleagues at one party meeting "Who is the master of the party?", Healy famously retorted with another question "Aye, but who is the mistress of the party?" – a comment that almost led to the men coming to blows. His savage onslaught in public reflected his conservative Catholic origin. A substantial minority of the Irish people never forgave him for his role during the divorce crisis, permanently damaging his own standing in public life. The rift prompted nine-year-old Dublin schoolboyJames Joyce to write a poem calledEt Tu, Healy?, which Joyce's father had printed and circulated.[4] Only three lines remain:[5]
His quaint-perched aerie on the crags of Time
Where the rude din of this century
Can trouble him no more.
Following Parnell's death in 1891, the IPP's anti-Parnellite majority group broke away forming theIrish National Federation (INF) underJohn Dillon. Healy was at first its most outspoken member, when in 1892 he wonNorth Louth as an anti-Parnellites, who in all won seventy-one seats. But finding it impossible to work with or under any post-Parnell leadership, especially Dillon's, he was expelled in 1895 from the INF executive committee, having previously been expelled from the Irish party's minor nine-member pro-ParnelliteIrish National League (INL) underJohn Redmond.[2]
In the following decades, largely due to his expanding legal practice, he became a part-time politician and estranged from the national movement, setting up his own personal'Healyite' organisation, called the "People's Rights Association", based on his position as MP for North Louth (a seat he held until theDecember 1910 election when defeated byRichard Hazleton).[citation needed] He waged war during the 1890s with Dillon and his National Federation (INF) and then intrigued with Redmond's smaller Parnellite group to play a substantial role behind the scenes in helping the rival party factions to reunite under Redmond in 1900.[citation needed]
Healy was extremely embittered by the fact that both his brothers and his followers were purged from the IPP list in the 1900 general election, and that his support for Redmond in the re-united party went unrewarded; on the contrary, Redmond soon found it wiser to conciliate Dillon.[citation needed] But two years later Healy was again expelled. He remained "the enemy within", recruiting malcontent MPs to harass the party and survived politically by dint of his assiduous constituency work, as well as through the influence of his clerical ally Dr.Michael Cardinal Logue,Primate of All Ireland andArchbishop of Armagh.[6] Healy remained rooted in the extended 'Bantry Gang', a highly influential political and commercial nexus based originally inWest Cork, which included his key patron, the Catholic business magnate and owner of theIrish Independent,William Martin Murphy, who provided a platform for Healy and other critics of the IPP.
However, at least after 1903, Healy was joined in his estrangement from the party leadership byWilliam O'Brien. O’Brien had been for years one of Healy's strongest critics, but now he too felt annoyed both by his own alienation from the party and by Redmond's subservience to Dillon. Involved with theIrish Reform Association 1904–5, they entered a loose coalition, which lasted throughout the life of the IPP. They were in agreement that agrarian radicalism brought little return, and with Healy practically becoming a Parnellite, they preferred to pursue a policy of conciliation with the Protestant class in order to further the acceptance of Home Rule. Redmond was sympathetic to this policy but was inhibited by Dillon. Redmond, in an act ofrapprochement, briefly re-united them with the party in 1908. Fiercely independent, both split off again in 1909, responding to real changes in the social basis of Irish politics. In 1908 Healy acted as counsel forSir Arthur Vicars, formerUlster King of Arms, in connection with the 1908 investigation of the previous year's theft of theIrish Crown Jewels.
By the 1910s, it looked as though Healy was to remain a maverick on the fringes of Irish nationalism. However, he came into notoriety once more when returned in theJanuary 1910 general election in alliance with William O'Brien's newly foundedAll-for-Ireland Party (AFIL), their alliance based largely on common opposition to the Irish party. He lost his seat in the followingDecember 1910 election, but soon afterwards rejoined the O'Brienites, O’Brien providing the 1911 north-east Cork by-election vacancy created by the retirement ofMoreton Frewen. Healy's reputation was not enhanced when he represented as counsel his associate William Martin Murphy, the industrialist who sparked the 1913Dublin Lockout.[2] Healy assiduously cultivated relationships with power brokers in Westminster such asLord Beaverbrook, and once they were introduced at Cherkley, was great friends with Janet Aitken for the remainder of his life.[7]
Redmond's and the IPP's powerful position of holding the balance of power atWestminster—and with the passing of theThird Home Rule Bill assured—left Healy and the AFIL critics in a weakened position. They condemned the bill as a 'partition deal', abstaining from its final vote in the Commons. With the outbreak ofWorld War I in August 1914, the Healy brothers supported theAllied and the British war effort.[8] Two had a son enlist in one of theIrish divisions, Timothy's eldest son, Joe, fought with distinction atGallipoli.
Having done much to damage the popular image and authority of constitutional nationalism, Healy after theEaster Rising was convinced that the IPP and Redmond were doomed and slowly withdrew from the forefront of politics, making it clear in 1917 that he was in general sympathy withArthur Griffith'sSinn Féin movement, but not with physical force methods. In September that year he acted as counsel for the family of the dead Sinn Féin hunger strikerThomas Ashe. He was one of the fewKing's Counsel to provide legal services to members ofSinn Féin in various legal proceedings in both Ireland and England post the 1916 Rising. This included acting for those interned in 1916 inFrongoch internment camp in North Wales. In 1916, he also represented the family ofFrancis Sheehy Skeffington as an observer at the court martial of Captain Bowen-Colthurst, and he participated in the subsequent Royal Commission of Inquiry into the murders at Portobello Barracks.
During this time, Healy also representedGeorgina Frost, in her attempts to be appointed a Petty Sessions clerk in her native County Clare.[9] In 1920 theBar Council of Ireland passed an initial resolution that any barrister appearing before theDáil Courts would be guilty of professional misconduct. This was challenged by Tim Healy and no final decision was made on the matter. Before the December1918 general election, he was the first of the AFIL members to resign his seat in favour of the Sinn Féin party's candidate, and spoke in support ofP. J. Little, the Sinn Féin candidate forRathmines in Dublin.
He returned to considerable prominence in 1922 when, on the urging of the soon-to-beIrish Free State'sProvisional Government ofW. T. Cosgrave, theBritish government recommended to KingGeorge V that Healy be appointed the first 'Governor-General of the Irish Free State', a new office representative ofthe Crown created in the 1921Anglo-Irish Treaty and introduced by a combination of theConstitution of the Irish Free State and Letters Patent from the King. The constitution was enacted in December 1922. Healy was the uncle ofKevin O'Higgins, theVice-President of the Executive Council andMinister for Justice in the new Free State.
Initially, theGovernment of the Irish Free State under Cosgrave wished for Healy to reside in a new small residence, but, facing death threats from theIRA, he was moved as a temporary measure into theViceregal Lodge, the former 'out of season' residence of theLord Lieutenant, the former representative of the Crown until 1922.
Healy officially entered office as Governor-General on 6 December 1922. He never wore, certainly not in public in Ireland, the official ceremonial uniform of aGovernor-General in theBritish Empire. At that time, in the 1920s, Healy was unique amongstviceregal representatives in the British Empire in this regard. Healy was also unique (along with his successor,James McNeill) amongst all the Governors-General in the British Empire in the 1920s in that he was never sworn in as a member of theImperial Privy Council. Nor was he ever sworn into thePrivy Council of Ireland, a body that ceased to exist in early December 1922. Thus, unusually for a Governor-General within the Empire, he never gained the prefix 'The Right Honourable' nor thepost-nominals 'PC'.
Healy proved an able Governor-General, possessing a degree of political skill, deep political insight and contacts in Britain that the newIrish Government initially lacked, and had long recommended himself to theCatholic Hierarchy: all-round good credentials for this key symbolic and reconciling position at the centre of public life. He joked once that the government didn't advise him, he advised the government: a comment at a dinner forThe Duke of York (the future King George VI) that led to public criticism. However, the waspish Healy still could not help courting further controversy, most notably in a public attack on the newFianna Fáil and its leader,Éamon de Valera, which led to republican calls for his resignation.[10]
Much of the contact between governments in London and Dublin went through Healy. He had access to all sensitive state papers, and received instructions from the British Government on the use of his powers to grant, withhold or refuse theRoyal Assent to legislation enacted by theOireachtas. For instance, Healy was instructed to reject any bill that abolished theOath of Allegiance.[citation needed] However, neither this nor any other bill that he was secretly instructed to block were introduced during his time as Governor-General. That role of being the UK government's representative, and acting on its advice, was abandoned throughout theBritish Commonwealth in the mid-1920s as a result of anImperial Conference decision, leaving him and his successors exclusively as the King's representative and nominal head of the Irish executive.[unreliable source?]
Concerning theIrish Boundary Commission (1924-25) which determined the border between theIrish Free State andNorthern Ireland, Healy made clear his opinion on how the border should be determined:
The requirement of the Treaty that the Boundary should be determined in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants subject to the other conditions therein mentioned, renders it necessary that the wishes of the inhabitants first be ascertained.[11]
Healy seemed to believe that he had been awarded the Governor-Generalship for life. However, theExecutive Council of the Irish Free State decided in 1927 that the term of office of Governors-General would be five years. As a result, he retired from the office and public life in January 1928. His wife had died the previous year. He published his extensive two-volume memoirs in 1928. Throughout his life he was formidable because he was ferociously quick-witted, because he was unworried by social or political convention, and because he knew no party discipline. Towards the end of his life he mellowed and became otherwise more diplomatic.
He died on 26 March 1931, aged 75, inChapelizod,County Dublin, where he lived at his home in Glenaulin, and was buried inGlasnevin Cemetery.
In his novelThe Man Who Was Thursday,G. K. Chesterton describes one of his characters as a "... little man, with a black beard and glasses – a man somewhat of the type of Mr Tim Healy ...".[12]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New office | Governor-General of the Irish Free State 1922–1928 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWexford Borough 1880–1883 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forMonaghan 1883–1885 With:Willian Findlater 1883–85 | Constituency divided |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forNorth Monaghan 1885–1885 | Succeeded by |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forSouth Londonderry 1885–1886 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNorth Longford 1887–1892 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNorth Louth 1892–December 1910 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNorth East Cork 1911–1918 | Succeeded by |
|  | |
