John Boland (Irish nationalist politician)

Irish politician (1870–1958)

Olympic Games

[[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1896 Summer Olympics 1896 Athens
a [[Mixed team at the 1896 Summer Olympics
1896 Summer Olympics 1896 Athens

John Mary Pius Boland (16 September 1870 – 17 March 1958) was an Irish Nationalist politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party for South Kerry from 1900 to 1918. He was also noteworthy as a gold medallist tennis player at the first modern Olympics.

Boland was born at 135 Capel Street, Dublin, to Patrick Boland (1840–1877), businessman, and Mary Donnelly. Following the death of his mother in 1882, he was placed with his six siblings under the guardianship of his uncle Nicholas Donnelly, auxiliary bishop of Dublin. Boland was educated at two private Catholic schools, one Irish, the second English, and both of whose existence and evolution were influenced by John Henry (later Cardinal) Newman – the Catholic University School, Dublin, and The Oratory School, Birmingham (since re located to near Reading) where he became head boy. His secondary education in the two schools either side of the Irish Sea helped give him the foundation and understanding to play an influential role in the politics of Great Britain and Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century, when he was a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party which pursued constitutional Home Rule. In 1892 he graduated with a BA from London University. He had studied for a semester in Bonn, Germany, where he was a member of Bavaria Bonn, a student fraternity that is member of the Cartellverband. Boland studied law at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating with a BA in 1896 and MA in 1901; although called to the Bar in 1897, he never practised. They had one son and five daughters; his daughter Honor Crowley succeeded her husband Frederick Crowley upon his death sitting as Fianna Fáil TD for South Kerry from 1945 until 1966, when she died. His daughter Bridget Boland was a playwright who notably wrote The Prisoner and co wrote the script for Gaslight, and, among other books, co authored Old Wives' Lore for Gardeners with her sister, Maureen Boland.

He died at his home in London on St. Patrick's Day 1958.