page_title: D. D. Sheehan
section_title: Labour "Chronicle"
hierarchical_section_title: D. D. Sheehan / New beginnings / Labour "Chronicle"
caption_attribution_description: English: Text of Captain D. D. Sheehan’s self-biography as published 27 September 1930 in the Dublin Chronicle above on the occasion of a front page promotion for the Irish Labour Party’s candidates standing in the Dublin County Council and Dun Laoghaire Borough local elections, on 29 September 1930. A Lifetime of Public Service It may be said of Captain Sheehan that he was in public life since he was a schoolboy, for he was only quite a lad when he was appointed Corresponding Secretary of the Kanturk Trade and Labour Council. out of this grew the Irish Democratic Trade and Labour Federation, which was sponsored by the late Michael Davitt. Eventually this movement was merged into the Irish Land and Labour Association which became a very powerful movement indeed for the social betterment of the town and country workers. It was as a candidate of this organisation, of which Captain Sheehan was National President, and the recognised leader for many years, that he was elected to Parliament for Mid-Cork, succeeding the late Dr. Tanner in the representation of this constituency. Writing of Captain Sheehan’s work in the Land and Labour Association the late William O'Brien in his book "An Olive Branch in Ireland" said --- "Their President, Mr. Sheehan M.P., has been the most successful practitioner of my land purchase plans in the County of Cork as well as by far the ablest advocate the Labourers’ Agitation has called into action". In this connection it might be remarked that Captain Sheehan led the campaign that won the Labourers’ Act of 1906 under the provision of which over forty thousand cottages were erected in Ireland in the course of a few years. Captain Sheehan suggested and drafted the several provisions of this Act, and its tremendous success was largely due to his initiative and driving powers. He was a member of the British House of Commons for close upon eighteen years and played a prominent part in many stirring events during that period. He was a ready debater and an eloquent platform speaker. Whilst in Parliament he took his degree as a Barrister-in-Law, and Prize-man in Jurisprudence at University College. He served in France during 1915-16 and his two eldest sons who were officers in the Air Service were both killed in actual battle encounters. Another son who got his commission when barely sixteen years of age was described by Sir Philip Gibbs as the youngest officer in the British Army. He is now a Captain in the Indian Army. Captain Sheehan has had a wide and varied experience as a Journalist. He was Managing Editor of the "Catholic News" and eleven associated newspapers before he was twenty-two years of age. He was the youngest member in the Irish Party on his election. He is the author of "Ireland since Parnell" published in 1921 and was at one time Literary Editor, Leader Writer and Dramatic Critic of the "National News" --- a Sunday newspaper that had a circulation of over a quarter of over million.
context_page_description: Daniel Desmond Sheehan, usually known as D. D. Sheehan was an Irish nationalist, politician, labour leader, journalist, barrister and author. He served as Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland representing Mid-Cork from 1901 to 1918, a constituency comprising the districts of Ahadallane, Ballincollig, Ballyvourney, Blarney, Coachford, Farran, Inchigeelagh, Macroom, Millstreet and Shandangan. As co-founder and President of the Irish Land and Labour Association, he was credited with considerable success in land reform, labour reforms and in rural state housing. From 1909, he was General Secretary of the Central Executive of the All-for-Ireland League, favouring a policy of National reconciliation between all creeds and classes in Ireland. During World War I he served as Irish regiments officer with the 16th Division in France, 1915–16. He resigned his parliamentary seat in 1918 and lived in England for several years, returning to Dublin following the ending of the civil war, when he was appointed editor of the Dublin Chronicle.
context_section_description: In a series of six front pages articles in the Dublin Chronicle under his name during 1929, Sheehan exposed and highlighted with harrowing descriptions the lives of the slum poor:
  The Frightful Slums of Dún Laoghaire – Avoca Square the Gateway to hell, its horrors (14 Sept.)
  The Council as Slum Owners – The Scandal of Crofton Parade, consumption takes its toll (28 Sept.)
  Housing in Bray – An Appalling Report- Would not pass as cattle stables (9 Nov.)
  Interviews followed with Lord Longford and General Richard Mulcahy, Minister for Local Government, on means to house the great numbers of poor people. On a wider range of important issues, he admonished the Irish Labour Party (ILP) for neither having an active agricultural policy nor a fighting programme. He rigorously demanded national de-rating for farmers and objected to the County Council "manager system", proposing instead the establishment of separate independent coastal Boroughs north and south of Dublin. Sheehan repeatedly stressed the need for the housing of labourers and unskilled worker and the abolition of slums.
  Sheehan condemned Republicans for two militant articles they published in An Phoblacht criticising Irish ex-servicemen of the Great War "that they fought for England ... and so forth". He countered:
  Nothing of the kind! They fought for liberty, they fought for the freedom of humanity, and against the spirit of Prussianism, which if it had prevailed would put the whole world under the sway of an atrocious tyranny. ...... The thing is too absurd and ridiculous for words, yet it is those puerile arguments that are being trotted out again and again by those who never spared the art of lying and wilful perversion when dealing with Irishmen of the Great War.
  Controversial themes continued to be highlighted during 1930 in the Dublin Chronicle, particularly when calling for freedom of speech after the "disgraceful breaking up" of the new Labour Party's inaugural meeting on 8 April in the Mansion House by organised gangs of Fianna Fáil and Peadar O'Donnell followers shouting "Up de Valera" and "Up Devlin".
caption: D. D. Sheehan (centre) campaigning with Labour Party team in the elections
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