Seán Etchingham

Seán Redmond Etchingham (27 March 1868 – 23 April 1923) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician.[1]

Seán Etchingham
Secretary for Fisheries
In office 2 April 1919 – 9 January 1922
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Fionán Lynch
Teachta Dála
In office May 1921 – June 1922
Constituency	Wexford
In office December 1918 – May 1921
Constituency	Wicklow East
Member of Parliament for East Wicklow
In office December 1918 – November 1922
Personal details
Born	John Redmond Hutchingham 27 March 1868 Courtown, County Wexford, Ireland
Died	23 April 1923 (aged 55)
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Sinn Féin
Occupation	Journalist

He was born in the townland of Ballintray, Courtown, County Wexford, one of five children of John Etchingham, described as a coachman, servant or butler, and Elizabeth (Bessie) Redmond, both of whom were also from County Wexford.[2] Like two of his siblings, his surname was recorded as Hutchingham in the birth register, although the family is referred to as Etchingham in most official documents.

In 1901, he was living in Church Lane, Gorey, where he was employed as a horse trainer.[3] By 1911, he was back in Courtown, where he gave his profession as journalist in the census of that year.[4][5]

He became a member of the Irish Volunteers, Sinn Féin, the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).

He was jailed in 1916 for his part in the Enniscorthy raid to seize the railway and to prevent reinforcements reaching Dublin to put down the Easter Rising. When the Dublin rising failed, Etchingham surrendered and was arrested, but released in the amnesty of 1917.[6]

He was first elected as a Sinn Féin candidate for Wicklow East at the 1918 general election.[7] As with the other Sinn Féin MPs, he did not take his seat in the British House of Commons, sitting instead in the revolutionary First Dáil, which met in the Mansion House, Dublin in January 1919.

He was later appointed to the government as Secretary for Fisheries. He was returned unopposed in the 1921 general election and opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the Dáil debates and again at the Volunteer Executive. He lost his Dáil seat in the 1922 election. He was jailed in 1923 during the Irish Civil War and died in prison from natural causes later that year.

References

1. "Seán Etchingham". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
2. "General Registrar's Office". IrishGenealogy.ie. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
3. "National Archives: Census of Ireland 1901". www.census.nationalarchives.ie. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
4. "National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911". www.census.nationalarchives.ie. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
5. The Manchester Guardian, Who's who in Sinn Fein Assembly, 28 January 1919
6. "One man's part in The Rising" (PDF). Retrieved 21 October 2013.
7. "Seán Etchingham". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 11 February 2012.

External links

• "Etchingham, John" . Thom's Irish Who's Who . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. 74  – via Wikisource.