John Crowley

John Crowley (1870–1934) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician and medical practitioner. Education and medical career Crowley received his early education in his home town of Cork. He attended the University of Glasgow and the Royal University of Edinburgh in Scotland where he obtained a medical degree. He practised medicine for 33 years, primarily in Ballycastle, County Mayo. Political career He was elected as a Sinn Féin MP for the Mayo North constituency at the 1918 general election, defeating incumbent Daniel Boyle of the Irish Party in a landslide of 7,429 to 1,861. In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled at the Mansion House in Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann. During the Irish War of Independence he also held the rank of Battalion Commandant in the Irish Republican Army and as a consequence he was a high priority target for the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Black and Tans. On one occasion he was seized upon in the night at his home by crown forces who beat him and threw him into a lorry bound for Ballina. However, mid-journey he was able to jump out and escape into the night while being shot at. Subsequently, he went on the run as he could not return home. For a time he returned to County Cork.