Timothy Michael Healy

Timothy Michael Healy, KC (May 17, 1855–March 26, 1931) was one of the most brilliant and most controversial of Irish politicians, with a career that spanned the period from Charles Stewart Parnell's leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party in the 1880s to the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922.

Governor-General

However he came back to prominence when, on the urging of the Provisional Government of W.T. Cosgrave, the British government recommended to King George V that Healy be appointed the first 'Governor-General of the Irish Free State', a new office of representative of the Crown created in the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) and introduced by a combination of the Irish Free State Constitution and Letters Patent from the King.

Related Topics:
W.T. Cosgrave - George V - Governor-General of the Irish Free State - Anglo-Irish Treaty

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Initially the Irish government under W. T. Cosgrave wished for Healy to reside in a new small residence, but when facing death threats from the IRA, as a temporary measure he was moved into the Viceregal Lodge, the former 'out of season' residence of the Lord Lieutenant, the former representative of the Crown before 1922.

Related Topics:
IRA - Viceregal Lodge

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Healy proved an able Governor-General, possessing a degree of political skill and contacts in Britain that the new Irish government, through made up of brilliant men, initially lacked. He joked once that the government didn't advise him; he advised the government, a comment at a dinner for the Duke of York, Prince Albert (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 new Fianna Fáil and its leader, Eamon de Valera, which led to calls for his resignation.

Related Topics:
Duke of York - Fianna Fáil - Eamon de Valera

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Unlike his successors, Healy possessed a three-fold role as Governor-General. He was simultaneously

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• representative of the King;
• representative of the British Government;
• native head of the Irish executive.

As a result, much of the contact between His Majesty's governments in London and Dublin went through him. 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 the Royal Assent to legislation enacted by the Oireachtas. However no Bills that he would have been required by these secret instructions to block, were introduced during his time as governor-general. That role of being the United Kingdom government's representative, and acting on its advice, was abandoned throughout the Commonwealth in the mid 1920s as a result of a Commonwealth Conference decision, leaving him and his successors exclusively as the King's representative and nominal head of the Irish executive.

Related Topics:
Oireachtas - United Kingdom

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Though Healy seemed to believe that he had been awarded the governor-generalship for life, the Executive 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 December 1927. He died in March, 1931, aged 75.

Related Topics:
Executive Council of the Irish Free State - 1927

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Healy as British Agent?

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There is an interesting suggestion in Tim Pat Coogan's book on Michael Collins that Healy may have been a long standing British agent code-named Thorpe: and that Michael Collins' near unmasking of the identity of Thorpe may have played some part in Collins' death. Coogan does not come to any definite conclusion on this suggestion: but certain aspects of Healy's career would make much more sense if he had been a British Agent. Is there any more evidence available on this point?

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