Sean T. O'Kelly

Sean Thomas O'Kelly (Irish name: Seán Tomás Ó Ceallaigh, (August 25, 1882 - November 23, 1966) was the second President of Ireland (1945-1959). He was a member of Dáil Éireann from 1918 until his election as President. During this time he served as Minister for Local Government (1932-1939) and Minister for Finance (1939-1945). O'Kelly served as Vice-President of the Executive Council from 1932 until 1937 and Tánaiste from 1937 until 1945.

Related Topics:
Irish name - August 25 - 1882 - November 23 - 1966 - President of Ireland - Dáil Éireann - 1918 - Vice-President of the Executive Council - Tánaiste

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Born in Dublin on Capel St., educated in the Christian Brothers School on Richmond St. Dublin. O'Kelly join the National Library in 1898,as a junior assistant. The same year, he joined the Gaelic League, becoming a member of the governing body in 1910 and General Secretary in 1915.

Related Topics:
Dublin - Christian Brothers - Gaelic League

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O'Kelly became active in republican circles. He was a member of Sinn Féin since it's foundation in 1905. He was an honorary secretary of the movement from 1908, to 1925. He secure a seat on Dublin City Council in 1906. He retained the seat until 1924. In March 1915, O Kelly went to New York, to inform Clann Na nGaedheal on plans of a rising in Dublin against British rule. Padraig Pearse apponted O'Kelly as his Staff Captain, when the rising should take place.

Related Topics:
Sinn Féin - Dublin City Council - New York - Clann Na nGaedhe - Padraig Pearse - Staff Captain

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After the Easter Rising in 1916, O'Kelly was jailed, released, and re-arrested. He escapted from detention in Fairfield, United Kingdom and return to Ireland.

Related Topics:
Easter Rising - Fairfield

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O'Kelly was elected Sinn Féin MP in 1918. Along with other Sinn Féin MPs, he refused to take his seat in Westminster. Instead they set up an illegal(under British Law) Irish parliament, called Dáil Éireann, in Dublin. O'Kelly served as speaker or Ceann Comhairle (pronounced kh-auwn Corla) of Dáil Éireann. He also served as the Irish Republic's official but unaccepted Ambassador, who sought and was refused admittance to the post-World War One peace treaty negotiations at Versailles in France. O Kelly ensured Pope Benedict XV who granted hin an audience on serval occasions, not to denouce the Irish Indpendence movement.

Related Topics:
Westminster - British Law - Dáil Éireann - Ceann Comhairle - Irish Republic - Versailles - Pope Benedict XV

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O'Kelly was a close associate of Eamon de Valera, who served variously as President of Dáil Éireann/Príomh Áire (prime minister from April 1919 to August 1921) and President of the Republic (from August 1921 to January 1922). As with de Valera, he opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed by representatives of the British and Irish Republic's governments in December 1921. When de Valera resigned as President of the Republic, O'Kelly returned from Paris to Ireland to try to negotiate a compromise, whereby de Valera could return to the presidency. A furious de Valera turned down the offer and ordered O'Kelly to return to Paris.

Related Topics:
Eamon de Valera - President of Dáil Éireann - President of the Republic - Anglo-Irish Treaty

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During the Irish Civl War, O'Kelly was in jail until Christmas 1923. Afterwards he spent the next two years as a Sinn Féin envoy to the United States.

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When in 1926 Eamon de Valera left Sinn Féin to found his own pragmatic republican party, Fianna Fáil, O'Kelly followed him, becoming one of the party's founding members. In 1932, when de Valera, having won that year's general election, was appointed President of the Executive Council (prime minister of the Irish Free State) he made O'Kelly his Minister for Local Government. O'Kelly earned a controversial reputation over his key role in attempts to publicly humiliate the then Governor-General of the Irish Free State, James McNeill. Stunts such as withdrawing the Irish Army's band from playing at diplomatic functions which the Governor-General attended, or in one notorious case the sight of O'Kelly and Defence Minister Frank Aiken storming out of a diplomatic function at the French Legation when McNeill, the guest of honour, had arrived, damaged O'Kelly's reputation and image, particularly when the campaign backfired; McNeill published his correspondence on the issue with de Valera (in which de Valera looked foolish), before resigning, leaving de Valera with the task of choosing a new governor-general, an embarrassing situation for a politician who had tried his best to avoid any association with the office.To the surprise of many, O'Kelly's was among the names considered for the office. Why is not known for certain, but suspicion rests on O'Kelly's controversial membership of an extreme right wing Irish Roman Catholic organisation, the Knights of Columbanus, which de Valera suspected had a 'source' in the cabinet. The talkative, tactless, fanatically religious whiskey-drinking O'Kelly matched the bill, perhaps through indiscretions rather than deliberate actions. However O'Kelly was not made governor-general, the post instead going to former Fianna Fáil TD Domhnall Ua Buachalla.

Related Topics:
Fianna Fáil - President of the Executive Council - Governor-General of the Irish Free State - James McNeill - Frank Aiken - Knights of Columbanus - Domhnall Ua Buachalla

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In 1938, again O'Kelly's position in cabinet became a focus for speculation, as rumours swept Leinster House (the seat of Parliament) that deValera intended making O'Kelly the Fianna Fáil choice to become President of Ireland, the office which had replaced the governor-generalship in the new Irish constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann. Again the justification for deValera sending one of his senior ministers to 'the Park' (a term used to describe the presidency, as the presidential residence is in the Phoenix Park in Dublin), was rumours that someone in cabinet was, either deliberately or accidentially, letting information slip to the Catholic Church through the Knights of Columbanus. De Valera had on a number of occasions ordered O'Kelly to resign from the Knights, only to find that he would rejoin later. However, the apparent entry of the popular Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alfie Byrne, into the presidential race (in fact he eventually failed to get nominated) and the belief that neither Sean T. not any other politician could beat Byrne (ironically a close friend of O'Kelly) led to all party agreement, on the opposition Fine Gael's suggestion, that the office go to Douglas Hyde, an independent senator, Irish language enthusiast and founder of Conradh na nGaeilge (pronounced Cun-ra naa gale-ga), known in English as the Gaelic League, a cultural organisation promoting the preservation of the Irish language (gaelic), music, dancing and traditions.

Related Topics:
Leinster House - Bunreacht na hÉireann - Phoenix Park - Fine Gael - Douglas Hyde - Conradh na nGaeilge

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O Kelly was appointed Minister of Finance in 1939. He secured the passing of The Central Bank Act in 1941.

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O'Kelly left the cabinet in 1945 when he was elected President of Ireland in a popular vote of the people, defeating two other candidates. Sean T.'s most famous faux pas occurred during a state visit to the Vatican, when in a breach with standard protocol, he told the media of Pope Pius XII's personal opinions on communism. The resulting row strained relationships between Pope Pius and Josef Stalin.

Related Topics:
Protocol - Pope Pius XII - Josef Stalin

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Sean T. O'Kelly was elected unopposed to the presidency a second time in 1952.During his second term he visted many nations in Europe and addressed the United States Congress in 1959. He retired at the end of his second term in 1959, to be replaced by his old mentor, Eamon de Valera.

Related Topics:
United States Congress - Eamon de Valera

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On his retirement as president in 1959, he was described as a 'model president' by the normally hostile Irish Times newspaper. Though controversial, the diminutive O'Kelly. (in one famous cartoon he was shown walking up a long driveway to the presidential residence, Áras an Uachtaráin, in a top hat bigger than

Related Topics:
Irish Times - Áras an Uachtaráin

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He died on November 23 1966 at the age of 84, fifty years after the Easter Rising that first brought him to prominence. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

Related Topics:
November 23 - 1966 - Glasnevin Cemetery

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He was survived by his second wife, Phyllis. They married in 1936 and had no children. His first wife was Phyllis sister Mary Kate Ryan of Tomcoole, Co Wexford. They married in 1918 and Mary died in 1934.

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