Background
KELLY, Edward J. was born on March 31, 1883. Son of Peter and Rose Kelly, late of Mall House, Ballyshannon, Company Donegal.
KELLY, Edward J. was born on March 31, 1883. Son of Peter and Rose Kelly, late of Mall House, Ballyshannon, Company Donegal.
Born at Ballyshannon, he was educated at Street Vincent"s College, Castleknock and at the Royal University, Dublin, where he obtained a Master of Arts
He was a solicitor, barrister-at-law and Senior Counsel (South Carolina). in 1904. He later lectured at the Royal University in Modern History and also lectured and examined in Economics at the Royal College of Science, Street Stephen"s Green. He was called to the bar in 1917, made a Senior Counsel of the Irish Free State in 1930, and became a Bencher of the King"s Inns, Dublin in 1937.
He specialised particularly in company and local government law.
He was first elected as an Irish Parliamentary Party Member of Parliament at the January 1910 United Kingdom general election for the constituency of East Donegal, defeating the Unionist candidate Thomas Harrison by 3,415 votes to 2,202. He was then returned unopposed in the December 1910 United Kingdom general election.
In the Irish general election, 1918 he was the beneficiary of an electoral pact brokered by Cardinal Logue under which eight seats in northern Ireland were allocated either to the Irish Parliamentary Party or to Sinn Féin and not contested by the other. In the election Kelly obtained 7,596 votes to the Unionist"s 4,797.
An unofficial Sinn Féin candidate broke the pact but obtained a mere 46 votes.
Nationalist.
29th United Kingdom Parliament. 30th United Kingdom Parliament. 31st United Kingdom Parliament]
Following the election, Kelly chose not to be a member of the First Dáil but remained active in the United Kingdom House of Commons representing East Donegal until his retirement in October 1922 on the establishment of the Irish Free State.