Sean T. O’Kelly

Life
1882-1966; b. Dublin, ed. O’Connell Schools; joined Gaelic League, 1898; mgr. Claidheamh Soluis; mbr. Ciste Cnótha (of Gaelic League), 1910; co-fndr. Sinn Féin, and Irish Volunteers; staff-capt. in GPO, 1916; imprisoned; elected T.D., Dublin, 1919; Irish delegation to Paris Peace Conference, 1919 - where he was assisted by Madame Vivanti, the wife of John Chartres; Sinn Féin envoy to America, 1922; fndr.-mbr Fianna Fáil; vice-President FF Exec. Council; min .Local Govt. and Public Health, 1932-39; Tanaiste, 1937-45; Irish ambassador [envoy] in Paris and Rome, 1919-21; 2nd President of Ireland, 1945-59, being succeeded by de Valera; the National Gallery of Ireland holds a crayon portrait by Seán O’Sullivan (1949). DIB DIH

 

Criticism
Patrick Keatinge, ‘The Formative Years of the Irish Diplomatic Service’, Éire-Ireland, 6, 3 (Autumn 1971), pp.57-71.

 

Notes
The big thing: Dismissed delegates at Fianna Fáil Ard Feis of 1932, calling the speakers from the floor who insisted on the break-up of the so called big ranches as ‘squeaks’: ‘You are too provincial, too narrow and small-minded to see the big thing that has grown upon you. National Ireland has reawakened and restored the national spirit ...’ (Worker’s Voice, 19 Nov. 1932; cited in Luke Gibbons, Transformations in Irish Culture, Field Day, Cork UP 1996, p.103.

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