Seán Gibbons

Irish politician (1883–1952)

Séan Francis Gibbons (31 May 1883 – 19 April 1952) was an Irish politician who sat as Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD) in the 1920s and as a Fianna Fáil TD in the 1930s. He later became a Senator, and was Cathaoirleach (chairperson) of the Seanad for five years.

Gibbons did not take part in the 1916 Easter Rising but was arrested in its aftermath and was interned in several prisons in Ireland, Wales and England. During the War of Independence (January 1919 July 1921), he served as Company Captain of Clomantagh Company of 2 Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade, IRA and later as Battalion Intelligence Officer. Taking the pro Treaty side in the Civil War, he was attached to Kilkenny Brigade, 2 Southern Division, National Army. He resigned from the National Army in August 1923 to take part in the General Election on behalf of the Cumann na nGaedheal political party. Gibbons later applied to the Irish government for a service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1924 and was awarded 4.836 years service in 1927 at Grade C for his service with the IRA and National Army between 1 April 1920 and 30 September 1923. Unusually, Gibbons never accepted receipt of nor was paid any part of this pension prior to his death in 1952. In his will he left his military service pension and arrears arising up to his death, to the Minister for Finance of the Government of Ireland, to be used in the reduction of the debt of the Irish State.

Gibbons was elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt, as a Cumann na nGaedheal candidate in the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency at the 1923 general election. However, he was not an active participant in proceedings because his health was poor, requiring him to leave the country at one point. He left Cumann na nGaedhael to join the National Party in March 1924, led by Joseph McGrath, in the aftermath of the Army Mutiny. He and eight other National Party TDs resigned their seats in the 4th Dáil on 30 October 1924, only 14 months after his election. The by election was held on 11 March 1925 and won by Cumann na nGaedheal's Thomas Bolger. Gibbons joined Fianna Fáil and stood for them as a candidate in Carlow–Kilkenny at the 1932 general election, winning one of his party's fifteen new seats in the 7th Dáil. He was returned at the 1933 general election, but after the constituency was divided under the Electoral (Revision of Constituencies) Act 1935, he lost his seat at the 1937 general election in the new Kilkenny constituency. He then stood as a Fianna Fáil candidate for election to Seanad Éireann on the Agricultural Panel, winning a seat in the 2nd Seanad and becoming Cathaoirleach. He remained as Cathoirleach in the 3rd Seanad, holding the office until 1944, when he was re elected to the 4th Seanad. He did not sit in the 5th Seanad but was re elected by the Agricultural Panel to the 6th Seanad, sitting from 1948 to 1951. He died on 19 April 1952, aged 68. Five years later, his nephew Jim Gibbons was elected as a Fianna Fáil TD in the restored Carlow–Kilkenny constituency, where Jim's son Martin Gibbons was a Progressive Democrat TD from 1987 to 1989. Another of Jim's sons, Jim Gibbons Jnr was a Progressive Democrat Senator.