Richard Anthony

Richard Sydney Anthony (20 October 1875 – 3 January 1962) was an Irish politician and trade unionist. Biography In his teens he joined the printing staff of The Cork Examiner, where in time he became a linotype operator. A member of the Cork Typographical Association (president from the 1920s), he became a leading figure in the Cork Workers' Council. In the 1920s he was a member of the national executive of the Labour Party and in 1924 a member of the executive council of the Irish Trades Union Congress. Anthony stood unsuccessfully for election at the 1923 general election. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork Borough constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected as a Labour Party TD at the September 1927 general election. In 1931, Anthony defied the Labour whip and supported the Constitution (Amendment No. 17) Bill, a measure proposed by the government of W. T. Cosgrave against the Irish Republican Army. The Executive Council sought to establish military courts that were empowered to impose sentences – including capital punishment, without appeal – in response to IRA violence. Alongside Daniel Morrissey, Anthony broke ranks with Labour, who thought the measures too authoritarian, and voted for the bill, and both of them were expelled from the party.