James FitzGerald-Kenney

He was born at his mother's family home in Clogher, near Claremorris, County Mayo. He was the second son of James Fitzgerald Kenney of Galway and Helena Crean-Lynch.[2] He was educated at Clongowes Wood College and University College Dublin, where he took his degree in 1898. He was called to the Bar in 1899 and rapidly built up a large practice on the Western Circuit. He was called to the Inner Bar in 1925.

In politics, he was until 1918 a firm supporter of John Redmond; he joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914. He was one of the earliest members of the Gaelic League.

He was re-elected at every election until he lost his seat at the 1944 general election.[3] He subsequently retired from politics, and spent his remaining years farming at Clogher which he inherited from his mother. He died in Galway in 1956.

Historians have not paid much attention to his career as Minister: he is inevitably overshadowed by the more charismatic figures of his predecessor Kevin O'Higgins and the Garda Commissioner Eoin O'Duffy. His appointment after only a few months in Parliament naturally caused surprise, and his lack of experience made him the target of Opposition attacks. Admirers however praised his ability to shrug off such attacks and his barrister's talent for making impromptu replies. Unlike O'Higgins, he allowed O'Duffy complete discretion as to how he ran the police force.[4] He occasionally invited ridicule in his willingness to defend O'Duffy : his claim that a victim of Garda brutality had been knocked down by a cow led to a brief fashion for referring to Gardaí as "Fitzgerald-Kenney's cows".[5] When the Four Courts, which had been badly damaged during the Irish Civil War, reopened in 1931, he firmly vetoed the proposal by the Chief Justice of Ireland Hugh Kennedy to hold a formal ceremony to mark the occasion, on the ground that it would virtually amount to an invitation to extremists to attack the building again.[6]

• "Fitzgerald-Kenney, James C." . Thom's Irish Who's Who . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. 82  – via Wikisource.