615 Phillip Callan

Constituency : Dundalk 1868-74 , 1874-80 , Louth  1880-85 ( Home Rule League)

Philip  replaced  George  Bowyer  at  Dundalk.

Philip  was  educated  at  Trinity  College  and  became  a  barrister. He  was  the  son  of  a  previous  MP  for  Louth. He  was   a  director  of  a  railway  in  Monaghan  and  the  Dundalk  Steam  Packet  Company. In  the  1865  by-election  in  Louth  he  helped  rally  the  nationalist  vote  behind  Tristram  Kennedy.

Philip  defected  to  the  Home  Rule  League  in  1874  and  stood  in  Louth  as  well  as  a safeguard. Elected  in  both  seats  he  chose  to  sit  for  Dundalk.  He  was  a devoted  adherent  of Butt. In  1880  he  was  defeated  in  Dundalk  and  switched  to  Louth  where  he  unseated  another Home  Ruler  George  Kirk. When  the  other  MP  Alexander  Sullivan  switched  to  Meath  to  let Kirk back  in, Philip  accused  him  of  taking  money  from  the  Tories  to  get  elected  there. Sullivan  sued  him  for  libel  and  won.

Philip  was  a  friend  of  TP  O  Connor  and  involved  with  him  in  cutting  telephone  wires  to prevent  Tory  MPs  being  summoned  to  vote. He  was  described  by  Charles  Bradlaugh  as  the  "Cardinals  henchman".

Parnell  expelled  Philip  from  the  Irish  party  for  drunkennness. In  1885  he  stood  against  the Parnellite  candidate  in  North  Louth  and  won  35%  of  the  vote.

He  died  in  1902  aged  65.