Career
Béaslaí fought in both the Rising and the Irish War of Independence. During the latter, he helped facilitate a mass escape of rebels from prison in Manchester. He was a cousin of Lily Merin (or Mernin), one of Michael Collins" moles in Dublin Castle, who passed much useful information to Collins, and pointed out undercover targets in the street.
Later Béaslaí became director of publicity for the Irish Republican Army, and at the 1918 general election he was elected to the First Dáil Éireann as Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for Kerry East.
In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled at the Mansion House in Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann. At the 1921 general election he was returned unopposed to the 2nd Dáil as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) for Kerry–Limerick West.
He was re-elected unopposed at the 1922 election as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin candidate. He did not contest the 1923 election, and in his latter years he dedicated himself to literature.
He wrote a book about his experiences titled Michael Collins and the Making of a New Ireland (which was published in Dublin in 1926).
He and Con Collins share a distinction in that they were elected in three Irish general elections unopposed by any other candidates.