Education
Born in Ballina, Company Mayo, he was educated at Street Muredach"s College there and later Saint Enda"s Rathfarnham, run by Padraig Pearse.
Born in Ballina, Company Mayo, he was educated at Street Muredach"s College there and later Saint Enda"s Rathfarnham, run by Padraig Pearse.
After studying at Trinity College, Dublin, he qualified as a solicitor in 1918 and built up a practice in his home town. He also took part in local politics, becoming chair of Ballina Urban Council from 1919 to 1932 and chair of Mayo County Council from 1922 to 1926. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1921 as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for Mayo North and West.
He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and joined the Republican forces and was seriously injured during the Civil War.
He was re-elected to the Dáil again in 1923 for Mayo North and in a further ten elections until 1951. He joined the cabinet of Éamon de Valera in 1932, serving as Minister for Lands and Fisheries, Minister for Justice and Minister for Local Government and Public Health, resigning in 1941 due to ill health.
He was described by the Irish Times as "a gentle, kind and upright man".
Ruttledge died in 1952 while still a member of the Dáil.