Background
He was born in Albert Place East, Dublin.
He was born in Albert Place East, Dublin.
He was manager of Arthur Griffith"s newspaper Nationality and looked after it during Griffith"s periods of imprisonment. He was elected to the 2nd Dáil at the 1921 Irish elections as a Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) for the Dublin South constituency representing Sinn Féin. He was not re-elected at the 1922 election, but was elected to the 4th Dáil at the 1923 general election, defeating independent candidate Sir Andrew Beattie by just 490 votes, but did not take his seat.
He was defeated at the June 1927 general election.
Following the Treaty, he sided with the anti-Treaty side. He was imprisoned a number of times and took part in a hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison.
He was officer commanding of the republican prisoners in Harepark Internment Camp, The Curragh, County Kildare. He served as a Sinn Féin member on Dublin City Council.
He was president of Sinn Féin from 1935 to 1937.
He was one of the seven signatories of the document which transferred the supposed authority of the Second Dáil on 17 December 1938 to the Army Council of the Ireland Republican Army. His brother-in-law had founded the printing firm Elo Press. At the time of his death, on 28 April 1958, he was living at 217 South Circular Road, Dolphin"s Barn, Dublin.
He was a member of the Boland"s Mills Garrison under the command of Éamon de Valera during the 1916 Rising and was interned in Frongoch after the Rising.