Charles P. Dolan, Sinn Fein MP for North Leitrim
Sinn Fein is Gaelic for "Ourselves Alone"
Charles P. Dolan was a very interesting character. He was the boyhood school mate of my Grandmother Anne McTiernan, nee McGreal. My Sainted grandmother never liked him as when they were kids and she was walking to school, Charles would never give her a ride in his dog cart. They both went to the same school but were never close friends.
Charles was always interested in shoes. He tried to start a
boot manufacturing plant in
North Leitrim but it never got off the ground. He was a contemporary of
P.A McHugh, the publisher of the Sligo
Champion newspaper. 
Bernard
McTiernan, The Champion of Sligo worked for McHugh as sub editor. Both
McHugh and his sub
editor Bernard McTiernan were against Sinn Fein and for the U.I.L.
Charles was also a
contemporary of Rev. Stephen McTiernan, my third cousin. Rev. Stephen
was a very powerful
voice in Leitrim during these Land War years when Sinn Fein was
starting up. At the time
the common people and the leaders around North Leitrim did not like
Sinn Fein or what it
stood for. Since Charles Dolan was the Sinn Fein candidate for the
British Parliament from
North Leitrim they voted him out of office...sort of knocked him off
his dog cart as they
say. Charles' uncle was the Vicar General of the Diocese and
conspicuous by his silence on
his nephews campaign for office as MP.
In 1983 while we were in the deeds office in Carrick-on-the Shannon, on a visit with my dad to Leitrim, after learning that we were from St. Louis, a clerk in the Carrick-on-the-Shannon deeds office asked me if I had ever heard of Charles Dolan. At the time I had not but the clerk proceeded to tell me all about him.
Later on in history, after Charles had resigned his MPship by taking the Chiltern Hundreds* he immigrated to St. Louis, MO USA right after the turn of the century. St. Louis had a majority of all the shoe manufacturing plants in the country early in the 20th century. Charles tried unsuccessfully to transport the shoe technology of the time back to Leitrim to set up manufacturing plants. St. Louis since that time has gone out of the shoe business.
While in St. Louis, he joined the MASONs which at the time was hated more by the Catholic Church than Communism ever was. He also married a non Catholic, which was regarded as only just below the sin of joining the MASONs. Because of this Hugh McTiernan VI, my grandfather and the other St. Louis Irish immigrants would never talk to him.
Strange how these events lead up to my poor old dad, John Francis McTiernan, who about the mid 1930's is attending law school at Washington University. Who should turn up to be my dad's major law professor, none other than Charles P. Dolan. I wonder what difficulty my dad had to even get a passing grade in Dolan's class.
My dad, at the time was trying to stay in college to keep playing baseball and Law school gave him several more seasons of playing time.
* Chiltern Hundreds is a legal device used to resign from the British Parliament as it is by law illegal for an MP to resign. The Chiltern Hills are in the counties of Oxford, Buckingham and Bedford. The area was once infested with robbers on account of which an official named the Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds was appointed by James I to protect the people (and his tax base). It is held to be an office of profit under the crown and any member of Parliament accepting an office of profit under the crown must vacate his seat, subject to re-election. The custom dates from 1750.
The below supplied by Martin Doherty
Charles
Dolan was the first person
to run for Parliament under the Sinn Fein banner. Charles lost,
but ten years later Sinn
Fein won in a landslide
at the 1918 election.
THE
ELECTORS OF NORTH LEITRIM
Fellow-Countrymen, … Two years ago you sent me to be your representative in the British
House of Commons. You sent
me to voice your demand for Self Government, and you also
gave me a mandate to
strive for whatever remedial measures lay within our reach, and I went to the House of Commons determined to serve your interests and the
interests of our country to
the best of my ability.
But I was not long there before I
realized the truth of
Michael Davitt's
statement – that no Irish grievance, however genuine would ever be remedied in that Assembly unless the
Government had to choose between
reform and martial law in Ireland
…
The
day of Parnell, Davitt, and the Land League is over, and the voice of Ireland is drowned amidst contending English factions. Although I felt that the Irish members
were wasting their time in the British House of Commons, I waited to see what the Liberals
would do to redeem their
pledges regarding Home Rule. These pledges had raised high hopes in the breasts of Irishmen and many looked forward with confidence to the
Council Bill. ...
The publication of the Bill destroyed
whatever lingering
belief I had in
the sincerity of the Liberals. Henceforth I felt that if I continued to attend Westminster I would be deceiving my
constituents and betraying the cause of Irish
Nationalism. I have come home to tell you the truth, and to abide by the consequences; I have come home to tell you that the Irish Members are helpless in the House of Commons, where they are outnumbered six to one, and their speeches unheeded; that the proper place for the representatives
of Ireland to meet is Dublin, not London;
that the true field of action is Ireland, not England; that it is only by our efforts that Ireland can be raised to a position of prosperity and started on the path of national development; and that in appealing to Englishmen
we are wasting our energies and demoralizing our
people ....
I stand for Ireland, Free, Self-reliant, and Prosperous......
Sinn Féin means the end of empty talk and humbug, and the beginning of genuine National work; it means more wealth, more employment, and better wages for the people; it heralds the dawn of a new era rich with promise for our long-suffering country, and as a believer in the policy of Sinn Fein, a believer in a self-reliant, self-supporting Ireland, I confidently solicit your support.
C.J.Dolan
Source: C.J.
Dolan’s by-election address, Sinn
Féin, 22 February 1908
ELECTION INTELLIGENCE LEITRIM
(NORTH DIVISION)
The result
of the polling, which took place on Friday, to
fill the Parliamentary vacancy in
this division
caused by the appointment
of Mr. C. J. Dolan to be steward and bailiff of the manor of Northstead was declared on
Saturday as follows:-
Mr. Francis Meehnan (N.)
…
… 3,103
Mr.
C.J. Dolan (Sinn Fein)
…
… 1,157
Nationalist majority
…
…
1,946
When the
result was declared in Manorhamilton by Mr. Wilton
Vaugh, sub-sheriff, some cheers were given
by a crowd which had
assembled outside the Court-house, but there was no excitement
of any kind. In the course of a conversation afterwards, Mr. Meehan
said that he attributed
his success to the intelligence of the people of
the constituency, and to their determination
to support a pledge
bound party in Parliament. Mr. Dolan in seconding a vote of thanks
to the sub-sheriff said that this was the first time when the issue of
Sinn
Fein versus Parliamentarianism
was put clearly
before an Irish electorate, and the fact that on the first occasion
1,157 votes had been recorded in favour of the policy of abstention
from the Parliament of
England was something to give hope. Forty years ago, when Home Rule was
put
before an Irish
constituency in Longford, only
400 votes were recorded in favour of John Martin, the Home Rule
candidate; a few years afterwards Home Rule was the policy of the Irish
nation. So would it be with
Sinn Fein. The policy that
was best for the interests of the country and most in keeping with the country’s
traditions and honour was bound
sooner or later to prevail.
The large
abstention from voting showed that nearly 2,000 people in North Leitrim
were still undecided
as to which was the best policy for the country,
and that they preferred to take no
part whatever
in deciding the issue.
The result of the
election was received in Dublin without surprise, for Mr. Dolan's candidature was, from
the first, regarded as
hopeless. The fact that he polled over a thousand votes is regarded,
however, as a serious blow to the prestige of the Parliamentary party.
The
nucleus of a Sinn Fein
party exists in nearly
every country town in Ireland, and it is believed that Mr. Dolan's comparative
success will encourage the extremists to give
the official Nationalists a great deal of trouble
at future elections. It may he noted that a considerable sum was
subscribed by Sinn Feiners
throughout Ireland for the expenses of Mr. Dolan's
candidature. According to Mr. Dolan himself,
the Unionist electors in North Leitrim as a body,
abstained from voting. He seems to have
expected a certain amount of support from this quarter.
Source:
The Times, 24 February 1908
********************************************
Dr M.A. Doherty
Principal Lecturer in History
School
of Humanities
University of Westminster
309 Regent Street
London W1B 2UW
020 350 69042
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Last updated Jan 1, 2000