Wednesday 6 July 2022

 



6 July 1958 Sir John Lymbrick Esmonde, 14th Baronet died on this day. Born on 5 February 1893 he was an Irish nationalist politician who unusually served as both Member of Parliament (MP) in the Parliament of the United Kingdom in London and later as a Teachta Dála (TD) in Dáil Eireann in Dublin. 

Born on 5 February 1893 Salop (Shropshire), England he was the son of Dr John Joseph Esmonde MP (1862–1915), of Drominagh, Borrisokane, County Tipperary. They were a junior branch of a landed and titled Irish catholic family. On the death of his father in 1915, he was elected in his place (opposed by two nationalist contenders) as Irish Parliamentary Party MP for North Tipperary. He  served  in World War I with the Leinster Regiment then as Captain The Royal Dublin Fusiliers with the Intelligence Corps; he was an engineer.  

He was one of five Irish MPs who served with Irish regiments in World War I, the others Stephen Gwynn, William Redmond and D. D. Sheehan as well as former MP Tom Kettle. John Lymbrick Esmonde served with the forces that put down the Easter Rising. He withdrew without defending his seat in the 1918 general election. After studying law at the King's Inns, Dublin (1919–21), he was called to the bar (1921). 

He subsequently served as a Fine Gael TD for Wexford, where he won a seat at the 1937 general election. He was re- elected in 1938 and 1943, but lost his Dáil seat in the 1944 election. He became a barrister at the King's Inns, Dublin, called to the inner Bar as Senior Counsel in 1942 and bencher of the King's Inns in 1948. He inherited the Esmonde Baronetcy when the senior male line died out in 1943. He was re-elected TD for Wexford in the 1948 general election serving until the 1951 general election, when he retired from politics. In 1948 he was suggested as possible Taoiseach by Seán MacBride, on the grounds that he had no link to either side in the Civil War!

As a barrister he was in a number of notable cases: he was senior counsel for Eric Dorman O'Gowan  in his action against Winston Churchill, and for Patrick Kavanagh in his action against the Leader. In 1954 he defended Michael Manning, the last person to be hanged for murder in the Irish Republic. 

https://www.dib.ie/biography/esmonde-sir-john-lymbrick-a2946

His younger brother Lt. Geoffrey Esmonde (1897–1916) aged 19 was killed in action in World War I serving with the 4th Tyneside Irish Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. His second younger brother was Sir Anthony Esmonde, 15th Baronet (1899–1981). His half-brother Eugene Esmonde was awarded a VC posthumously for in February 1942 leading the air attack on the German battleships Scharnhorst & Gneisenau as they made a dash through the English Channel.


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