Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1899-06-24
Representatives Selected by the
People to Inaugurate
Home Rule.
Men of Ability and Experience
Whose Patriotic Devotion
Has Been Tested.
THE YOUNG MEN TAKE THE HELM.

We give sketches of several of the
Chairmen of Irelands County Councils,
which give an idea of the manner of men
who now rule the Irish people:
Henry Egan, ]. P, Chairman of the
Kings County County Council, was born
at Clara, in the county over whose gov
eminent he now presides, in lS47. His
father, the late Patrick Egan, was a
prominent merchant, who in 1852 estab-
lished in Tullamore the well-known mer-
camille establishment now owned by a
limited company under the style of p. &
H. Egan, Limited. under the Chairman
ship of the subject of this notice, who is
the only surviving son. Mr.. Egan has
been home ruler since he first joined
Isaac Butts original Home Rule Asso-
citation. He was one of the founders of
the Land League in Tullamore, and he
was Secretary of his branch when Mr..
Foster did him the honor of imprisoning
him in Mas Jail in 1881. On the very
bhdl liC suspect Wdo lOhSOu III
prison his fellow-members of the Tulla.
more Town Commissioners Board unani.
mously selected him as their Chairman.
On his release after a detention of some
months, Egan actively assumed the
duties of his position, and was annually
reelected during the ensuing five years,
He was also appointed Town Magis
trate, but when coercion swept over the
land again, and William O'Brien, the
late John Vaudeville, the late Alderman
Hooper and others were being tortured
and pei secuted in Tullamore Jail, Egan':
visits to the prisoners became so incon
venient to the authorities that he wa:
promptly deprived of the Magistracy. The
Town Commissioners refused to nomi
nate successor, and the position re
manned vacant for time. However, the
Justice of the Peaceship was restored in
1895. Egan is still a member of the
Town Board, now the Urban Council
and is a stanch Nationalist advocate o.
unity.
Alderman p. A. McHugh, M. p.
Chairman of the Sligo Council, with the
chair of office which he wore as Mayor o
Sligo. McHugh is Leitrim mana ma
tive of the division of the county which
he now represents in Parliament. H,
was born in 1855 1t is now twenty year
since McHugh bought the Sligo Cham
pion, of which he is editor and proprietor
Previously the present member for Nortl
Leitrim taught science and classics a
Summer Hill College, Athlone. McHugl
was one of the ablest and staunchest SUP
porters of the Parnell movement in tn
West, and when the jubilee coercion &C
of 1887 was put into operation, he wa
one of Balfour's first victims. The Gov
eminent sent the plucky journalist an
eloquent orator to Jail for lengthene
term. The people of his native count
promptly sent the criminal" to Parlis
ment. Latterly McHugh has energet
cally devoted himself to the work {
spreading the United Irish League.
The Wicklow Councillors made wis
selection when they chose E. p. O'Kell!
of Baltinglass, as their Chairman for ii
coming year. O'Kelly is native of ii
picturesque county of the O'Byrnes an
O'Tooles. He is the son of the la
William O'Kelly, of Baltinglass, and WI
educated at Mountrath Monastery an
St. Patrick's College, Carlow. O'Kell
was an ardent Land Lacquer, became
Suspect" and was confined in Dundal
and Kilmainham for several months.
was while Gagged in Kilmainham that
P. O'Kelly's fellow prisoners solemn
met together and decreed that he shoul
forthwith resume the Celtic co." whiC
had been dropped somehow by h
family. The suspect was amenable. SIM
then he has been known as f.
O'Kelly. Six years ago O'Kelly WI
chosen Chairman of the Baltinglass Boai
of Guardians, a position he still hold
He was created Magistrate in 1894, an
for time he sat in Parliament as mer
Der of Fast Wicklow at the beginning
1895, but did not choose to come forwai
!, again at the general election.
P. A. Meehan, the Chairman of Il
Council for Queens County, is native
Rosenallis, in old Ossory, where he W
born in 1851. After few years of blu:
ness life in Dublin, Meehan turned
,, journalism and joined the staff of Il
Leinster Independent, a Nationalist c
gan, then published in Maryboroug
While ON this paper, Meehan becan
acquainted with many of the leadii
Natioualists of the Sixties" and 1t W
: not surprising that the new Journal
grew up an ardent Nationalist. In Is
!. Meehan finally relinquished newspap
work and devoted himself to busine
career. The Land League moveme
found in Meehan an active officer al
: strenuous organizer.
John Francis Smithwick, the Cha
man of the Kilkenny County Council,