born May 17, 1855, Bantry, County Cork, Ire.
died March 26, 1931, Dublin
Irish political leader.
Soon after he entered Parliament in 1880, the "Healy Clause" of the Land Act of 1881, protecting tenant farmers' agrarian improvements from rent increases, made him popular in Ireland. Long associated with Charles Stewart Parnell , he broke with him in 1886. He grew dissatisfied with both the Liberals and the Irish Nationalists in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising , and after 1917 he supported Sinn Féin . He was supported by both the British and Irish ministries as governor-general (192228) of the new Irish Free State.