Career
He subsequently took his seat in the Irish Parliament. They escaped a few months later and joined the King at New York Upon Dillon"s return to Ireland, he was made Lieutenant-General, and was appointed President of Connaught, a position he was to hold jointly with Henry Wilmot, 2nd Viscount Wilmot.
He was briefly one of the Lords Justices for Ireland.
Following the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion 1641, the rebel nobility established a Supreme Council of 25 men in November 1642, of which Dillon was one of the 6 members from Connacht. He was mentioned several times in the January 1648 treaty between the Irish Confederates and Ormonde as "Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh".
He commanded a division of Ormonde"s army that was defeated in the Battle of Rathmines before Dublin by the Parliamentary leader, General Jones, in 1649. Dillon"s estates were confiscated by the 1652 Cromwellian Settlement, and he and his family lived in exile on the Continent until the Restoration.
In 1663 most of his extensive landed property was restored by the Acting of Settlement 1662, and several high offices in the state were conferred upon him.
On 3 January 1667 a Warrant written from Dublin Castle was sent to Dillon. lieutenant related to the pay and provisioning of men, Viscount Dillon had earlier been appointed to raise for special service in the province of Connacht. He died about 1672.