# David Sheehy

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**David Sheehy** (1844 – 17 December 1932)[1] was an [Irish](/source/Irish_people) [nationalist](/source/Irish_nationalism) politician. He was a member of parliament (MP) from 1885 to 1900 and from 1903 to 1918, taking his seat as a member of the [Irish Parliamentary Party](/source/Irish_Parliamentary_Party) in the [House of Commons](/source/British_House_of_Commons) of the [United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland](/source/United_Kingdom_of_Great_Britain_and_Ireland).

## Political career

Born in Limerick, he was a student for the priesthood at the [Irish College in Paris](/source/Irish_College_in_Paris), but left due to a cholera epidemic and later married Bessie McCoy ( Conor said they eloped, but they were both 25 years old and both fathers were witnesses at the wedding).[2] In his youth he was a member of the [IRB](/source/Irish_Republican_Brotherhood) and was active in the [Land League](/source/Irish_National_Land_League). He was imprisoned on six occasions[3] for his part in the [Land War](/source/Land_War).[4]

At the [1885 general election](/source/1885_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Ireland) he was elected unopposed as MP for [South Galway](/source/South_Galway_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) and held that seat until the [1900 general election](/source/1900_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Ireland).[5] His re-election in Galway was unopposed in [1886](/source/1886_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Ireland) and [1895](/source/1895_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Ireland).[5] When the Irish Party split over the leadership of [Charles Stewart Parnell](/source/Charles_Stewart_Parnell), Sheehy joined the anti-Parnellite [Irish National Federation](/source/Irish_National_Federation) majority. At the [1892 general election](/source/1892_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Ireland), Sheehy joined was opposed by a Parnellite [Irish National League](/source/Irish_National_League) candidate, whom he defeated with a majority of nearly two to one. In the same election he stood in [Waterford City](/source/Waterford_City_(UK_Parliament_constituency)), but failed to unseat the Parnellite [John Redmond](/source/John_Redmond).[6]

The two factions of the [Irish Parliamentary Party](/source/Irish_Parliamentary_Party) reunited for the [general election in 1900](/source/1900_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Ireland), but Sheehy did not stand again and was out of parliament for the next three years. After the death in August 1903 of [James Laurence Carew](/source/James_Laurence_Carew), the [Independent Nationalist](/source/Independent_Nationalist) MP for [South Meath](/source/South_Meath), Sheehy was selected as the Irish Parliamentary Party candidate in [the resulting by-election in October 1903](/source/1903_South_Meath_by-election). Carew had allegedly been elected in 1900 as a result of a series of errors in nominations, and his predecessor [John Howard Parnell](/source/John_Howard_Parnell) stood again, this time as an Independent Nationalist. Sheehy won with a majority of more than two to one, and held the seat until he stood down at the [1918 general election](/source/1918_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Ireland).[7]

## Personal and family life

David was the son of Richard Sheehy and Johanna Shea, and was the brother of Mary Sheehy and Fr. [Eugene Sheehy](/source/Eugene_Sheehy_(priest)).

He and his wife, Bessie, had seven children, of whom six survived to adulthood. One of his daughters, Mary (born 1884) married the MP [Thomas Kettle](/source/Thomas_Kettle) and had one daughter, Betty (1913–1996). [Hanna](/source/Hanna_Sheehy-Skeffington) (born 1877), became a teacher and married the writer [Francis Skeffington](/source/Francis_Sheehy-Skeffington); they had one son, Owen, who was seven years old when his father was murdered by the Captain Bowen-Colthurst in [Portobello Barracks](/source/Cathal_Brugha_Barracks), [Rathmines](/source/Rathmines), during the [1916 Rising](/source/1916_Rising). Kathleen married [Freeman's Journal](/source/Freeman's_Journal) and [Irish Independent](/source/Irish_Independent) journalist Frank Cruise O'Brien; the contrarian politician and writer [Conor Cruise O'Brien](/source/Conor_Cruise_O'Brien) was their son. Margaret (born 1879), an elocutionist, actress and playwright, married solicitor Frank Culhane; they had four children; after his death she married her godson, the poet Michael Casey. Sheehy's two sons, Richard and Eugene, were barristers.[8]

The writer [James Joyce](/source/James_Joyce), who lived nearby as a youth, often visited the family home, 2 Belvedere Place, where musical evenings and theatricals took place every Sunday evening. Joyce entertained the family with Italian songs. In 1900 Margaret wrote a play in which the Sheehys and their friends, including Joyce, acted. Joyce took a particular liking to Eugene and had a long-lasting but unrequited crush on Mary.[9] Joyce's novel *[Ulysses](/source/Ulysses_(novel))* wittily describes an encounter between David Sheehy's wife, Bessie, and Father John Conmee, SJ, rector of [Clongowes](/source/Clongowes_Wood_College). Their daughter Mary is the *spéirbhean* longingly pursued by the protagonist in the story "[Araby](/source/Araby_(short_story))" in Joyce's collection *[Dubliners](/source/Dubliners)*. Another daughter, Kathleen, may have been the model for the mockingly nationalist Miss Ivors[10] in the story "[The Dead](/source/The_Dead_(Joyce_short_story))", which concludes *Dubliners*.

When David Sheehy died in Dublin aged 88 it was reported that he had been the oldest surviving member of the Irish Parliamentary Party.[11]

## References

1. ["Historical list of MPs: constituencies beginning with "M", part 2"](https://web.archive.org/web/20090810231437/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Mcommons2.htm). *Leigh Rayment's House of Comnmons pages*. Archived from [the original](http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Mcommons2.htm) on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 19 December 2009.

1. Cruise O'Brien, Conor (1972). *States of Ireland*. London: Hutchison. pp. 19, 31, 334.

1. [Online biography of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington](http://www.hannashouse.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=2) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20090719072823/http://www.hannashouse.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=2) 19 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine

1. [Letter quoted by Conor Cruise O'Brien](https://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/ireland/cruis794.htm)

1. Brian M Walker (ed.) (1978). *Parliamentary election results in Ireland 1801–1922*. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. pp. 352–353. ISBN 0-901714-12-7.

1. Walker, op. cit., page 378

1. Walker, op. cit., page 368

1. Ellmann, Richard (1982). *James Joyce, 1st Revised Edition*. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 51–53 et passim. ISBN 0-19-503381-7.

1. James Fairhall, *James Joyce and the Question of History*, (Cambridge University Press, 1995) page 85.

1. Ellmann, Richard, James Joyce, OUP paperback (1983), citing interview with Mrs Mary Sheehy Kettle, 1953

1. Obituaries: Mr David Sheehy, *The Times*, 19 December 1932.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [David Sheehy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sheehy) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sheehy?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.