Career
Farrell was elected to the Parliament at a by-election on 5 September 1895. South Kerry"s outgoing Member of Parliament, Denis Kilbride, had been re-elected in South Kerry at the general election in July 1895, but had also been elected for North Galway, and chose to sit for that seat. The only other candidate at the by-election was Bantry-born William Martin Murphy, standing on this occasion as an "independent nationalist".
Murphy was a former Member of Parliament for Dublin Street Patrick"s, and a wealthy businessman who was the principal backer of the "Healyite" newspapers the National Press and the Daily Nation.