Constituency : Tipperary 1865-6
John's victory was another Liberal gain which meant they now held both seats.
John was a Catholic farmer's son from Mayo who spent two years training as a priest before switching to the law and becoming an Irish barrister. He also wrote for the Morning Register newspaper and founded the journal The Nation. In the 1840s he joined Daniel O' Connell's Repeal Association and along with Thomas Davis and Charles Duffy formed a wing known as Young Ireland prepared to countenance force to achieve the repeal of the union. He took part in the 1848 "rising" despite having no illusions about its likely success. John had to flee to France from a death sentence then made his way to America where he worked as an attorney. He returned to Ireland under an amnesty in 1855 after renouncing Fenian violence and advocating a Federal union of two countries. He formed the anti-Fenian National Association with Archbishop Cullen and The O'Donoghue and advocated co-operation with Gladstone in Parliament.
John was described by his wife as "dark as a Spaniard in complexion, with regular noble features and great melancholy eyes ". The Gentlemen's Magazine said "Although he was not specially successful as a speaker, his calm and earnest manner, and the fullness of knowledge which he brought to bear on the subject, always secured him a hearing when he felt called upon to address the House". His subject was usually the financial relations between England and Ireland.
He died of cholera in 1866 aged 51. His son John eventually became leader of the Irish Nationalist party.
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