Constituency : Kildare 1830-47 , Longford 1851, Kildare 1859-65
Richard was the son of a major and a prominent associate of Daniel O'Connell and one of the first wave of Catholics to enter the House following Emancipation. He joined Melbourne's government as a whip in 1835 and was promoted first to First Secretary to the Admiralty in 1839 then Financial Secretary to the Treasury at the end of the ministry in 1841. He stepped down in 1847 to become Governor of Malta from 1847-51. He resigned the position a few months later in protest at the Ecclesiastical Titles Act and returned to Parliament for Longford in 1851 for the express purpose of attacking the Bill ( and Russell ) and did not stand in the subsequent General Election.
Richard returned to Kildare and Parliament in 1859 and served till 1865 without re-joining the government.
He died in 1880 aged 83 the same year that his son Ambrose unsuccessfully contested Kildare.
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