MP for Mid-Cork
What was the position of J. J. O'Shee from Oct 1900 to 1906?
J . J . OShee James John OShee ( 3 November 1866 – 1 January 1946 ) usually known as J . J . OShee , was an Irish nationalist politician , solicitor , labour activist and Member of Parliament ( MP ) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland representing the constituency of West Waterford from 1895 until 1918 . Elected as an Anti-Parnellite member of the Irish Parliamentary Party he was one of the more socially radical members of the party . He co-founded and was secretary from 1894 of the Irish Land and Labour Association Origins . OShee was born as John James Shee on 3 November 1866 at Newtown , near Carrick-on-Suir Co . Tipperary as the youngest of four sons of John Shee , a farmer , and his wife Mary ( née Britton ) . He had five sisters all of whom became nuns . He attended the local national school , completing his education at Rockwell College and University College Dublin . He first served as a law apprentice with James OSullivan in Carraig-on-Suir before qualify as a solicitor in 1890 . He subsequently opened his own practice in the town , establishing a branch office later in Clonmel . Shee changed his name in 1900 to OShee . Political activist . While still an apprentice he became politically active and won a considerable reputation as a public speaker and man of action . In 1894 in alliance with D . D . Sheehan he co-founded the Irish Land and Labour Association ( ILLA ) , chaired by Sheehan with OShee as secretary . They campaigned for radical changes in land and labour laws , in particular the granting of smallholdings to rural labourers . The Irish Party leaders suspected this independent organisation from the beginning . A year later in 1895 O’Shee was elected as an anti-Parnellite to represent the constituency of West Waterford at Westminster , which seat he held until 1918 . From 1898 Sheehan put all his energies into building up the ILLA , which spread across Munster and by 1904 peaked 144 branches . Although Sheehan was a Parnellite when elected MP for Mid-Cork in 1901 , the Sheehan-OShees alliance reflected how the Parnell split could be bridged by seeking co-operation in an independent organisation . Sheehan speaking of OShee wrote that “ we co-operated heartily in and out of Parliament in making the Labour organisation a real and vital force , and our relations for many useful years , – were of the most cordial and kindly kind . The Irish Party leadership on the other hand , refused to consider direct Parliamentary representation to the Land and Labour Association , an indication of the middle-class determination with maintaining its hold over national politics . Party politics . With the introduction of the Land Purchase ( Ireland ) Act 1903 won by William OBrien MP , OShee achieved some notable successes in negotiating land purchase , the Bessborough ( Ponsonby ) estates being remembered as a particular triumph . However the leaders of the Irish Parliamentary Party ( IPP ) , John Dillon and Joseph Devlin strongly opposed the OShee-Sheehan ILLA alliance , particularly after Sheehan grew closer to the dissident OBrien when he was alienated from the party in 1904 after his policy of conciliation was rejected by its leaders . OShee aligned himself with the leadership of John Redmond . Dillon decided to intervene and set about splitting the ILLA in 1905 , forming a new original ILLA group , strictly subservient to the Party , under the loyal Redmonite OShee . Purpose : – to confine Sheehans movement , otherwise the whole of Munster will be poisoned and no seat safe on vacancy . O’Shees organisation was forthwith the only one recognised by the Party and permitted to attend Irish Party or United Irish League conventions . OShee was mainly supported by the ILLA branches in Tipperary and Wexford . Sheehans stronghold was in Cork , acting as OBriens backbone organisation , Kerry and Limerick were divided . Attempts at a reunion were thwarted by OShees insistence that Sheehan must step down . In the long run the Partys intervention weakened Sheehans renamed LLA group , and the labour movement in general . Multiple career . OShee found it difficult initially to combine his responsibilities as a solicitor with those of his political career , and was in fact reprimanded by Redmond in 1903 for his failing to attend parliament regularly . This was alleviated when his brother became a solicitor , joined his practise and took over much of OShees workload . This enabled him to extend his practise across Kilkenny , Waterford and Tipperary synergising it with supporting negotiations in land purchase . His legal knowledge also proved valuable in his parliamentary work on social legislation . He was one of the few members of the IPP who took a singular course in many matters . In 1913 he supported a womans suffrage bill , despite instructions to vote against it ( which Redmond did ) . At the outbreak of the Great War he actively recruited in support of Irelands involvement in the war , but after the 1916 Rising he urged that a more nationalistic approach be taken . At the outset of the Irish Convention he joined Arthur Lynch and four other MPs in signing a declaration that no partition based settlement would be acceptable . He regarded the idea of separation as absurd because Ireland was dependent on the British market . After years . His tenacity saw him take his stand in the 1918 Irish general election , where he was defeated by Sinn Féins Cathal Brugha in the new West Waterford constituency . On 1 June 1921 OShee married Anne Mary ( Nancy ) , daughter of Thomas B . Naughton , farmer of Mullinahone , Co . Tipperary . They had two sons and four daughters . James John OShee continued to practise law in Clonmel until he retired in 1935 . He moved some time later to Pembroke Park , Ballsbridge , Dublin , where he died on 1 January 1946 . References . - Sheehan , D . D. , Ireland since Parnell , Land and Labour pp . 168–186 , Daniel OConnor , London ( 1921 ) - OBrien , Joseph V. : William OBrien and the course of Irish Politics , 1881–1918 , Ch . 7 Triumph and Defeat University of California Press ( 1976 ) - Bradley , Dan : Farm Labourers : Irish struggle 1900–1976 , Ch.2 : Farm Labourer Organisations in Co . Cork before 1919 ( 1988 ) , Athol Books - Lane , Pádraig G. , The Land and Labour Association 1894–1914 , Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society , Vol.98 , pp . 90–106 , ( 1993 ) , - Maume , Patrick : The long Gestation , Irish Nationalist Life 1891–1918 , Gill & Macmillan ( 1999 ) - Maume , Patrick in : McGuire , James and Quinn , James ( eds ) : Dictionary of Irish Biography From the Earliest Times to the Year 2002 ; Royal Irish Academy Vol . 7 , O’Shee , James John : pp . 946–47 ; Cambridge University Press ( 2009 )