Alfred Byrne (17 March 1882 – 13 March 1956) was an Irish politician who served as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP), as a

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parl ...

(TD) and as

Lord Mayor of Dublin The Lord Mayor of Dublin ( ga, Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ga, Cathaoirleach, links=no ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Th ...

. He was known as the "Shaking Hand of Dublin".

Early life

The second of seven children, he was the son of Thomas Byrne, an engineer, and Fanny Dowman. His childhood home was at 36 Seville Place, a terraced house with five rooms just off the

North Strand North Strand ( Irish: ''An Trá Thuaidh'' ) is a residential inner city neighbourhood on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. Location and access The area is physically bounded by the River Tolka to the north and the railway tracks to the east. Nor ...

in Dublin. Byrne dropped out of school at the age of 13, and was soon juggling jobs as a grocer's assistant and a bicycle mechanic. Eventually he used his savings to buy a pub on

Talbot Street Talbot Street (; ) is a city-centre street located on Dublin's Northside, near to Dublin Connolly railway station. It was laid out in the 1840s and a number of 19th-century buildings still survive. The Irish Life Mall is on the street. Locati ...

. He married Elizabeth Heagney in 1910.

Early political career

Byrne became an

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members ...

on Dublin Corporation in 1914. He was a member of the Dublin Port and Docks Board, a significant position for a politician from the Dublin Harbour constituency. In the records of the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas (, ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of: *The President of Ireland *The two houses of the Oireachtas ( ga, Tithe an Oireachtais): ** Dáil Éireann ...

his occupation is given as company director. He was elected as MP for Dublin Harbour in a by-election on 1 October 1915, following the death of

William Abraham William Abraham is the name of: * William Abraham (Irish politician) (1840–1915), Irish Parliamentary Party Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons * William Abraham (trade unionist) William Abraham (14 June 1842 – 14 May 1922 ...

, as a candidate of the

Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nation ...

. The

Easter Rising The Easter Rising ( ga, Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with t ...

in 1916 was followed by the rapid decline of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the rise of

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...

. At the general election in 1918 Byrne was defeated by a Sinn Féin candidate,

Philip Shanahan Philip Shanahan (27 October 1874 – 21 November 1931) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician, who was elected to the United Kingdom House of Commons in 1918 and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) in Dáil Éireann from 1919 to 1922. He lived in Dubl ...

. Byrne was elected as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

TD supporting the

Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...

for the Dublin Mid constituency at the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

to the

Third Dáil The Third Dáil was elected at the general election held on 16 June 1922. This election was required to be held under the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed on 6 December 1921. It first met on 9 September and until 6 December 1922, it was the Provision ...

in 1922. From 1923 to 1928 he represented

Dublin North Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ce ...

. He was an elected member of

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

, for a six-year term from 1928. He vacated his Dáil seat on 4 December 1928. He resigned from the Seanad on 10 December 1931, and returned to the Dáil in 1932. He remained a TD until his death in 1956, representing

(1932–1937) and Dublin North-East (1937–1956). In several elections he secured more votes than any other politician in the country.

Lord Mayor (1930–1939)

Byrne was elected as Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1930, serving in the post for nine consecutive years. When cycling or walking around the city he dispensed lollipops to children, who were often seen chasing him down the street. With a handshake and a few words for all, his eternal canvassing soon earned him the first of his nicknames: the Shaking Hand of Dublin. Married with eight children, Byrne treated the people of Dublin as his second family. Every morning he would find up to fifty people waiting for him in the Mansion House. None had appointments. All were met. Byrne answered 15,000 letters in his first year as Lord Mayor."Busiest Man in Ireland". ''The People.'' 1 February 1931. Many were from Dubliners looking for a job, a house, some advice or a reference. One morning in 1931 a journalist watched the Lord Mayor attend to his correspondence. Within an hour he accepted "seventeen invitations to public dinners, one invitation to a public entertainment and eight invitations to public functions." Then he dictated forty-three sympathetic letters to men and women looking for employment. In 1937, children between the ages of eight and eleven years old were being sentenced to spend up to five years in Industrial Schools. Their crime was stealing a few apples from an orchard. When Byrne said such sentences were "savage," a judge responded with a defence of the Industrial School system, urging an end to "ridiculous Mansion House mummery." Byrne stood firm: "For the punishment of trifling offences the home of the children is better than any institution." In 1938, Byrne was favoured by the press for the presidency of Ireland, a ceremonial role created in the new Constitution, but he was outgunned by the political establishment.

Relations with the United States and the United Kingdom

When, in 1935, Byrne became the first Lord Mayor of Dublin to visit

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

in 40 years, he was granted the freedom of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' hailed the arrival of a "champion showman." Byrne often extended a hand of friendship to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. He also improved relations between Dublin (until recently the centre of British authority) and the rest of the country. One night

Dublin Fire Brigade The Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB; ga, Briogáid Dóiteáin Átha Cliath) is the local authority fire and rescue service and ambulance service for Dublin City and the majority of the Greater Dublin Area. It is a branch of Dublin City Council. T ...

got an urgent call for assistance from

Clones Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to: Places * Clones, County Fermanagh * Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland Biology * Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...

. As Lord Mayor, Byrne felt obliged to join the men on top of the fire engine as they set off on the 85-mile journey in the middle of the night.

Anti-communist connections

In August 1936, Byrne addressed the inaugural meeting of the

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

Irish Christian Front The Irish Christian Front (ICF) was a Catholic organisation that existed from August 1936 to October 1937. The organisation was founded with the intention of showing support and raising funds for the Nationalist faction of the Spanish Civil War. ...

, some of whose members later expressed anti-Semitic views. In 1938, as Lord Mayor, he presented a gift of a replica of the

Ardagh Chalice The Ardagh Hoard, best known for the Ardagh Chalice, is a hoard of metalwork from the 8th and 9th centuries. Found in 1868 by two young local boys, Jim Quin and Paddy Flanagan, it is now on display in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. I ...

to Italian naval cadets visiting Dublin on board two warships, who had been welcomed by the Irish government despite the protests of Dubliners. A photograph exists of Byrne giving a fascist salute along with

Eoin O'Duffy Eoin O'Duffy (born Owen Duffy; 28 January 1890 – 30 November 1944) was an Irish military commander, police commissioner and politician. O'Duffy was the leader of the Monaghan Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a prominent figure i ...

, commander of the

Blueshirts The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, then Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, but best known by the nickname the Blueshirts ( ga, Na Léinte Gorma), was a paramilitary organisation in the Irish Free State, founded ...

, around 1933.

Final term as Lord Mayor (1954)

In 1954, Byrne was elected as Lord Mayor for a record tenth time. This time he did not live in the Mansion House, but stayed in

Rathmines Rathmines () is an affluent inner suburb on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It lies three kilometres south of the city centre. It begins at the southern side of the Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to t ...

with his family, taking the bus to work each morning.David McEllin. "Legendary Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne". In Leaders of the City: Dublin’s First Citizen, 1500–1950, ed. by Ruth McManus & Lisa-Marie Griffith, (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013), 163. He was just as devoted to the job. When flooding damaged 20,000 houses in Fairview and North Strand, he rose from his sick bed to organise a relief fund. Byrne's final term as Lord Mayor came to an end in 1955. Shortly afterwards,

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Law, describing him as a "champion of the poor and needy, and a friend of all men."

Death

Alfie Byrne died on 13 March 1956. An obituary in ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' noted: Byrne's funeral was the largest seen in Dublin for many years. ''

The Evening Herald ''The Herald'' is a nationwide mid-market tabloid newspaper headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and published by Independent News & Media who are a subsidiary of Mediahuis. It is published Monday–Saturday. The newspaper was known as the ''Even ...

'' reported that "Traffic in O'Connell Street was held up for almost 20 minutes to allow the cortege of over 150 motor cars to pass, and at all the junctions along the route to

Glasnevin Glasnevin (, also known as ''Glas Naedhe'', meaning "stream of O'Naeidhe" after a local stream and an ancient chieftain) is a neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland, situated on the River Tolka. While primarily residential, Glasnevin is also home ...

people silently gathered to pay tribute to one of Dublin’s most famous sons". ''The Irish Times'' noted that "one of the largest groups of people gathered at the Five Lamps, one of the few places at which Alderman Byrne always made a speech during his election campaign for Dublin North-East." ''

The Irish Press ''The Irish Press'' (Irish: ''Scéala Éireann'') was an Irish national daily newspaper published by Irish Press plc between 5 September 1931 and 25 May 1995. Foundation The paper's first issue was published on the eve of the 1931 All-Ireland ...

'' reported a tribute by the Taoiseach, John A Costello, "He had great personal charm and was known for his old-world courtliness both at home and abroad.... We mourn in the passing of Alfie Byrne the loss of an honoured and distinguished Irishman whose place in the hearts of his fellow countrymen was unique and who gave a lifetime of unselfish devotion to their service." The members of the Dáil stood and observed a short silence as a mark of respect. A telegram was sent to his widow from the Mayor of New York, Robert F. Wagner Jr., expressing deepest sympathy, and stating "that Ald. Byrne had attained high office of Lord Mayor many times, but he never lost contact with the poor and the underprivileged, whose champion he was".

Legacy

The press called him the "Shaking Hand of Dublin", Alfred the Great, and The Lord Mayor of Ireland, but most people knew him simply as Alfie. As one of the most popular Dublin-born politicians of the 20th century, he did not write a memoir. The

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to ...

caused by his death, was won by his son Patrick Byrne. Two other sons

A. P. Byrne Alfred Patrick Byrne (12 June 1913 – 26 July 1952) was an Irish politician. A clerk by profession, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as an Independent Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin North-West at the 1937 general election. He was re-elected at ...

and Thomas Byrne were also TDs for various Dublin constituencies. Alfie Byrne Road in Clontarf is named after him. The Dublin Bay North branch of

Young Fine Gael Young Fine Gael (YFG) is the autonomous youth wing of Fine Gael, one of Ireland’s major centre-right political parties. It offers its members scope to assist in formulation of political policy, and the day-to-day running of the senior party. ...

was renamed 'Alfie Byrne YFG'. Alfie Byrne also holds the distinction of being the only person to serve as

Councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

, MP, TD and

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

References

External links