Paul Galligan

Paul Galligan
Galligan photographed in May of 1916
Teachta Dála
In office May 1921 – June 1922
Constituency	Cavan
In office December 1918 – May 1921
Constituency	Cavan West
Personal details
Born	Peter Paul Galligan (1888-06-20)20 June 1888 Carrigallen, County Leitrim, Ireland
Died	14 December 1966(1966-12-14) (aged 78)
Political party	Sinn Féin
Military service
Branch/service	Irish Volunteers Irish Republican Army
Rank	Commandant
Battles/wars	Easter Rising

Paul Galligan^[1] (20 June 1888 – 14 December 1966) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician who would experience over five years in prison as a result of his republican activities during the 1916 Rising in Enniscorthy and the War of Independence in County Cavan.

Peter Paul Galligan was born in Carrigallen, County Leitrim, Galligan attended school at St Patrick's College, Cavan.^[2] As a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers, during the Easter Rising Galligan cycled from Dublin to Wexford carrying James Connolly's battle orders to ensure that the volunteers in the area rose to support those in Dublin. The Volunteers were ordered to destroy rail lines in order to prevent British reinforcements to Dublin from the south. Commandant Galligan and his men occupied Ferns, County Wexford and the surrounding areas.^[3] With 600 Volunteers in Enniscorthy under the command of Robert Brennan almost all of north Wexford was in rebel hands.^[4] When the volunteers disbanded he cycled back to Cavan but was arrested at the family home. After his arrest Galligan was sentenced to death but that sentence was later reduced to five years penal servitude.^[5]

He was elected unopposed as the Sinn Féin MP for Cavan West at the 1918 general election.^[6] The following month, in January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled in the Mansion House in Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann, though Galligan did not attend as he was in prison.^[1] He was arrested again in September 1920 ^[7] and re-elected as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cavan constituency at the 1921 elections. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted in favour of it. He did not contest the 1922 general election and retired from politics.^[8]

Sources

• Robert Brennan (1950), Allegiance.

References

1. "Roll call of the first sitting of the First Dáil". Dáil Éireann Historical Debates (in Irish). 21 January 1919. Archived from the original on 19 November 2007. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
2. Bureau of Military History Archived 19 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine WS Ref #: 170, Witness: Peter Paul Galligan, Officer IV, Wexford, 1916; Member 1st and 2nd Dail
3. Brennan, Robert (1950). Allegiance. Dublin: Brown and Nolan Ltd. pp. 64, 65.
4. Macardle, Dorothy (1965). The Irish Republic. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 179.
5. British Army (1922). Peter Paul Galligan (Report). UK National Archives. p. 2. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
6. "Peter Paul Galligan". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
7. Bureau of Military History WS Ref #: 768, Witness: Seamus McDermott, Intelligence Officer IRA, Cavan Town, 1921
8. "Peter Galligan". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 11 April 2009.

External links

• "Galligan, Peter Paul" . Thom's Irish Who's Who . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. 89  – via Wikisource.

• 
  War Office: Army of Ireland: Administrative and Easter Rising Records—Peter Paul Galligan

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Vincent Kennedy	Member of Parliament for Cavan West 1918–1922	Constituency abolished
Oireachtas
New constituency	Teachta Dála for Cavan West 1918–1921	Constituency abolished