James Lysaght Finegan

James Lysaght Finegan or Finigan (died 8 September 1900) was an Irish barrister, soldier, merchant and politician.  
He was educated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers and described as an "Anti-clericalist", and with his family engaged in the tea trade, while supporting the Nationalist cause.  In 1867 a nationalist called Michael Breslin was forced to leave Ireland, and only avoided arrest thanks to documents given to him by Finegan certifying him as a tea trader. 

Finegan later served in the French Foreign Legion during the Franco-Prussian War, leaving in 1871 at the conclusion of the war.  In the 1879 by-election in Ennis  he was proposed as an alternative candidate to that of the Home Rule League by Charles Stewart Parnell; he won by only six votes, out of 247 electors.  His service in parliament was brief; he resigned in 1882. 

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Category:1900 deaths
Category:19th-century Irish people
Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Clare constituencies (1801–1922)
Category:Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion
Category:UK MPs 1874–1880
Category:UK MPs 1880–1885
Category:Irish expatriates in France
Category:Barristers from Northern Ireland
Category:Military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War
Category:Irish soldiers in the French Army
Category:Year of birth missing