Number of Dáil vacancies increases following recent resignations and deaths

Dublin, 27 December 1922 – Two TDs, General Eoin O’Duffy and Colonel-Commandant Patrick Brennan, tendered their resignations to Dáil Éireann on 13 December.

General O’Duffy is leaving political life to focus full-time on his duties as Chief Commissioner of the Civic Guard. Col.-Comdt. Brennan is stepping down as a TD to assume the role of Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry – the link between the Dáil and the Seanad.

President W.T. Cosgrave has explained that he selected Brennan for the role based on his own knowledge of Brennan and on information he received regarding Brennan’s suitability.

Since those mid-December resignations another seat has been made vacant. Joseph MacDonagh, TD for Tipperary North, died on Christmas Day following an operation for appendicitis at the Mater Hospital Private Nursing Home. MacDonagh, an anti-treaty TD, has been imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail since his arrest on 30 September at his home on Palmerston Road. MacDonagh’s health had been poor for some time so he had been cared for in the prison hospital. He was a brother of the executed Easter Rising leader Thomas MacDonagh.

Joseph MacDonagh’s death, along with the resignations earlier in the month brings the number of vacant Dáil seats to 11, eight caused by deaths and three by resignations. The vacant seats were held by six pro-treaty, one Labour and three anti-treaty TDs.

General Eoin O’Duffy (left) with some of his staff at Limerick (Image: Irish Life, September 1922)

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]