George C. Westropp

Background

He was born in Ballymurphy, his father"s estate in County Limerick in 1877. He was the second son of Captain Thomas Westropp Bennett, a British Army officer and a scion of an old Limerick family of Protestant Irish Gentry.

Career

Bennett spent several years farming in Canada before returning to Limerick. He became a Magistrate, County Councillor and Vice Chairman of the local Hospital Committee and was involved in many other charitable projects which brought him a considerable local following. A noted farmer, agricultural expert he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) at the June 1927 general election for the Limerick constituency.

Throughout his time in the Dáil he was renowned as a strong defender of the Agricultural interest and was very popular with his constituents.

After a redrawing of the boundaries of the Limerick constituency he was not re-elected in the 1948 general election but the Inter Party Government Taoiseach John A. Costello nominated him to the Seanad where he sat until 1951 in recognition of his service to Ireland. He was rated as "an excellent shot" and was an enthusiastic huntsman and breeder of pedigree dogs.

The famous Milltown Irish Red Setters are a legacy of his. His obituary in The Irish Times in 1963 said that he had been "a popular public representative".

Politics

He later joined Fine Gael. A noted member of Fine Gael, he died in June 1963 after a political lifetime spent in the service of the people of Limerick and the wider Irish State. In an interview in 2008 Liam Cosgrave, the former Taoiseach of Ireland, who knew George Bennett well, said that "in 60 years he never heard a bad word said against Bennett who was held in universally high regard".

Connections

Uncle:

George Bennett