Frank Fahy

Early life and revolutionary period

Fahy was born on 23 May 1879 in the townland of Glanatallin, Kilchreest, County Galway, the eldest of 6 children born to John Fahy and Maria Jones. His father taught at the local National School. After an early education at his father's school in Kilchreest, he attended Mungret College in County Limerick. He later studied at University College Galway. He earned a Bachelor of Arts and a H.Dip. in Education, and a Diploma in Science.

From 1906 to 1921 he taught Latin, Irish and Science at Castleknock College (St Vincent's College), Dublin. Fahy qualified as a barrister in 1927 at King's Inns, and also taught at the Christian Brothers school in Tralee. He was at one time General Secretary of the Conradh na Gaeilge. He married Anna Barton of Tralee, a metal artist and member of the Cumann na mBan in 1908. They had no children.

As Company Captain of C Company, 1 Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, Fahy commanded the contingent that occupied the Four Courts during the 1916 Easter Rising. Arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison, he spent terms in several British prisons. Released in the general amnesty of June 1917, he was active in the reorganisation of the Volunteer movement, addressing public meetings throughout the country. Fahy was later awarded a pension by the Irish government under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 for his service with the Irish Volunteers between 1916 and 1917.

Political career

Fahy was first elected at the 1918 general election as a Sinn Féin Member of Parliament (MP) for Galway South, but as the party was pledged to abstentionism he did not take his seat in the British House of Commons and joined the revolutionary First Dáil. He was re-elected as TD for Galway in 1921 general election and having sided with the anti-treaty forces following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, he did not take his seat in either the 3rd Dáil or the 4th Dáil. Referring to the treaty, in 1922 Fahy said: "Can a Treaty based on fear, naked and unashamed, be a sound basis for friendship between the two peoples?"

He joined Fianna Fáil when the party was founded in 1926, and along with the 42 other Fianna Fáil TDs he took his seat in the 5th Dáil on 12 August 1927, three days before the Dáil tied 71 votes to 71 on a motion of no confidence in W. T. Cosgrave's Cumann na nGaedheal government (a tie broken by the Ceann Comhairle). After the government won two by-elections later that month, it dissolved the Dáil, leading to a fresh election.

After the September 1927 election, Cosgrave was able to form a minority government with the support of the Farmers' Party and some independent TDs. However, in the 1932 general election, Fianna Fáil won just under half of the seats and formed a government with the support of the Labour Party. The first business was of the 7th Dáil was the election of the Ceann Comhairle, and on 9 March 1932 Fahy was nominated for the position by Seán T. O'Kelly, winning the vote by a margin of 78 to 71.

He held the post until Fianna Fáil lost the 1951 election, and at the start of the 14th Dáil he did not offer himself for re-election as Ceann Comhairle. He was succeeded by the Labour TD Patrick Hogan. His 19 years in the chair remains the longest of any Ceann Comhairle, with the only other person to exceed 10 years as Ceann Comhairle being his successor, Patrick Hogan.

The 1932 election was the last which Fahy contested; as Ceann Comhairle, he was automatically re-elected at the next seven elections. When his Galway constituency was divided for the 1937 general election, he was returned unopposed for the new Galway East, and similarly in 1948 for the new Galway South constituency.

Fahy died on 12 July 1953, and is buried at Deans Grange Cemetery, Dublin. The Galway South by-election held after his death was won by the Fianna Fáil candidate Robert Lahiffe.