Timothy Daniel Sullivan (29 May 1827 – 31 March 1914) was an Irish nationalist, journalist, politician and poet who wrote the Irish national hymn "God Save Ireland", in 1867. He served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1886 to 1888 and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1880 to 1900.

Publicist

He owned and edited a number of publications (The Nation, Dublin Weekly News and Young Ireland). In December 1887, he published reports of meetings by the Irish National League. As a result, he was convicted and imprisoned for two months under the Crimes Act.

Family

He was married to Catherine (Kate) Healy who was the sister of Tim Healy, the first Governor General of the Irish Free State in 1922. A number of his descendants were people of outstanding distinction. His son Timothy was Chief Justice of Ireland from 1936 to 1946. His daughter Frances was an Irish-language activist in , the Keating branch of the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge) and a lecturer in Irish. His daughter Anne (who had sixteen children) was the mother of politician Kevin O'Higgins, one of the dominant political figures of the 1920s. Sullivan's great-grandson Tom O'Higgins served as Chief Justice of Ireland from 1974 to 1985.

His brother, Alexander Martin Sullivan, author of New Ireland and a fervent constitutional and cultural nationalist, was the owner and editor of The Nation after Gavan Duffy, and prior to Timothy Daniel Sullivan.

References

Further reading

  • 1911 census return.
  • Who's Who of British members of parliament: Vol. II 1886–1918, edited by M. Stenton & S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1978)

Notes

  • Sullivan, T.D. (1905) Recollections of Troubled Times in Irish Politics. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker; M.H. Gills & Son, Ltd. Retrieved on 30 March 2011.
  • Dunboy, and Other Poems by Timothy Daniel O'Sullivan. Fowler, Dublin. 1861
  • Irish National Poems, Timothy Daniel O'Sullivan (Ed.) Gill & Sons, Dublin, 1911