Education
Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
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William Sydney Clements
Edit ProfileMember of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Career
He was assassinated in Donegal in April 1878. Born in Dublin, he was educated at the Sandhurst and was commissioned as an Ensign in the 43rd Foot in 1824. In 1831 he was promoted Captain, having served in Portugal between 1826 and 1827, and that same year was appointed an aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
In 1835 he transferred to the 51st Foot.
On his father"s death in 1854, Clements succeeded as 3rd Earl. In 1855 he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and subsequently retired from the British Army.
Leitrim was deeply opposed to Gladstone"s Irish Land Acting of 1870 and was one of eight peers to protest against the legislation when it reached the House of Lords. In April 1878, after surviving various attempts on his life, Lord Leitrim was murdered along with his clerk and driver while on his way to his house at Milford.
He was buried in Dublin, amid scenes of great agitation, and despite the offer of a large reward his assassins were never apprehended.
They were named as the brothers Thomas and Patrick McGranaghan, but some historians suggest they were Michael McElwee and Neil Sheils from Fanad. A monument with a cross was set up at Kindrum in 1960 honoring McElwee, Shiels, and Michael Heraghty as the men whose actions "Ended the tyranny of landlordism". The murder forms a major element in the plot of the 2005 play The Home Place by Brian Friel.
Dolan, Liam The Third Earl of Leitrim (Fanad: James Shields, 1978)
Malcolmson, A.P.W. (2008).
Virtues of a Wicked Earl: The Life and Legend of William Sydney Clements, 3rd Earl of Leitrim. Dublin: Four Courts Press. Slevin, Fiona (2006).
By Hereditary Virtues: A History of Lough Rynn. Dublin: Coolabawn Publishing. p.
Membership
13th United Kingdom Parliament. 14th United Kingdom Parliament.
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Born
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Died
April 2, 1878 (aged 71) -
Nationality
Irish -
Religion
Protestant