Ireland as a whole knew nothing of him.

He was the son of a Southern American and a county Limerick woman; scholarly, a keen Gaelic Leaguer, by profession a teacher of mathematics.

In the rebellion he had held Boland's bakery, a large building covering the approaches to Dublin from Kingstown by rail; he had been the last of the leaders to surrender, and had earned high opinions by his conduct in these operations.

This was the Sinn Fein candidate for East Clare--a county where "extreme" men had always been numerous.
The view was expressed that he should have been opposed by one who took up the cause where Willie Redmond left it--by a soldier who was a strong Nationalist and strongly identified with the Parnellite tradition.

It was decided that we should stand a better chance if constitutional Nationalism were represented by a Dublin lawyer with close personal ties to the constituency.