Kevin Roantree O'Shiel (1891 – 1970) was an Irish politician and civil servant. Born in

Omagh Omagh (; from , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers River Drumragh, Drumragh and Camowen River, Camowen meet to form the River Strule, Strule. Northern Ireland's c ...

, O'Shiel studied at

Mount St Mary's College Mount St Mary's College is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private, co-educational, day and boarding school situated at Spinkhill, Derbyshire, England. It was founded in 1842 by the Society of Jesus (better known as the Jesuits), and h ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, then at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

and the

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns () is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environments. The Benchers of King's Inns aw ...

. He qualified as a barrister in 1913, but devoted much of his time to championing

Irish Home Rule The Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the end of ...

. He was a member of the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers (), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the format ...

, but did not take part in the

Easter Rising The Easter Rising (), 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 the aim of establishing an ind ...

, as he believed that Catholicism was incompatible with taking secret oaths, which would have been necessary to join any of the participating groups.O'Shiel's daughter sets record straight
, ''

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

'', 20 June 2013 Instead, in 1916, O'Shiel joined the

Irish Anti-Partition League The Irish Anti-Partition League (APL) was a political organisation based in Northern Ireland which campaigned for a united Ireland from 1945 to 1958. The organisation aimed to unite Irish nationalists, filling the void left by nationalist group ...

, and the following year became a member of

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

. O'Shiel was the

election agent An election agent is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is sent by those running the election. The term is most used in elections in the United Kingdom, as well as some ...

for

Arthur Griffith Arthur Joseph Griffith (; 31 March 1871 – 12 August 1922) was an Irish writer, newspaper editor and politician who founded the political party Sinn Féin. He led the Irish delegation at the negotiations that produced the 1921 Anglo-Irish Trea ...

at the

1918 East Cavan by-election The 1918 East Cavan by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the United Kingdom House of Commons constituency of East Cavan on 20 June 1918. The election was caused by the death of the sitting member, Samuel Young of the Irish Parli ...

. At the

1918 Irish general election The Irish component of the 1918 United Kingdom general election took place on 14 December 1918. It was the final United Kingdom general election to be held throughout Ireland, as the next election would happen following Irish independence. It is ...

, he himself stood in South Antrim. One of the least promising constituencies in the country for Sinn Féin, he took 14.9% of the votes cast.Northern Ireland Elections,
The Irish Election of 1918
He was also drafted at the last minute to stand in North Fermanagh; original Sinn Féin nominee George Irvine lost a pan-nationalist nominating convention to an

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 nati ...

candidate and decided that he would therefore withdraw. In the event, his only opponent in North Fermanagh was from the

Irish Unionist Party The Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA), also known as the Irish Unionist Party, Irish Unionists or simply the Unionists, was a unionist political party founded in Ireland in 1891 from a merger of the Irish Conservative Party and the Irish Loyal and ...

; O'Shiel took 47.9% of the vote, narrowly missing out on election. Following the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

, O'Shiel was involved in drawing up the

Constitution of Ireland The Constitution of Ireland (, ) is the constitution, fundamental law of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. It guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected non-executi ...

and liaised with the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

to successfully negotiating the admission of Ireland. In 1920, he was appointed as a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

in the Dáil land courts; through this, he served on the Land Settlement Commission, and occasionally acted as a circuit judge. He and Conor Maguire were the first two judges to be appointed by the Dáil.Mary Kotsonouris, ''The Winding-up of the Dáil Courts, 1922-1925: An Obvious Duty'', pp. 9, 253 O'Shiel stood unsuccessfully for Sinn Féin in Fermanagh and Tyrone at the

1921 Northern Ireland general election The 1921 Northern Ireland general election was held on Tuesday, 24 May 1921. It was the first election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Ulster Unionist Party members won two-thirds of votes cast and more than three-quarters of the seats in ...

,ElectionsIreland.Org,
Northern Ireland: 24 May 1921: Fermanagh and Tyrone
then afterwards devoted his time to activities in the South. He served as assistant legal advisor to the Irish government in 1922–23,Francis X. Martin and Francis John Byrne, ''The scholar revolutionary: Eoin MacNeill, 1867-1945'', p. 209 and as director of the North Eastern Boundary Bureau from 1922 to 1925. From 1923, he was a member of the

Irish Land Commission The Irish Land Commission was created by the British crown in 1843 to "inquire into the occupation of the land in Ireland. The office of the commission was in Dublin Castle, and the records were, on its conclusion, deposited in the records tower ...

, on which he served for forty years. O'Shiel wrote a number of books, including ''The Rise of the Irish Nation League'' in 1916, ''The Making of a Republic'' in 1920, ''The Land Problem in Ireland and its Settlement'' in 1954, and several ''

'' articles on his experiences in 1966. His daughter, Eda Sagarra, wrote a biography of her father: ''Kevin O'Shiel: Northern Nationalist and Irish-State Builder'' (issued 2013).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OShiel, Kevin 1891 births 1970 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish barristers People educated at Mount St Mary's College People from Omagh Dáil Court judges Circuit Court (Ireland) judges Alumni of King's Inns Sinn Féin parliamentary candidates Lawyers from County Tyrone Writers from County Tyrone