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Martin Corry (politician)

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Martin John Corry (12 December 1889 – 14 February 1979) was an Irish farmer and long-serving backbench Teachta Dála (TD) for Fianna Fáil. He represented various County Cork constituencies[1] covering his farm near Glounthaune, east of Cork city.[2] He was described by Michael Leahy, his IRA commandant as the Cork No 1 Brigade's 'Chief Executioner' and is believed to have been responsible for at least 27 killings, mostly in the neighbouring parish of Knockraha.[3] He was a founder member of Fianna Fáil in 1926, and among its first TDs after the June 1927 general election. He was returned at every election until he stood down at the 1969 general election.[4]

Martin Corry
Teachta Dála
In office
October 1961 – June 1969
ConstituencyCork North-East
In office
July 1937 – February 1948
ConstituencyCork South-East
In office
February 1948 – October 1961
In office
June 1927 – July 1937
ConstituencyCork East
Personal details
Born(1889-12-12)12 December 1889
Cork, Ireland
Died14 February 1979(1979-02-14) (aged 89)
Cork, Ireland
Political partyFianna Fáil
SpouseMargaret Fenton
Children3
Military service
Allegiance
Years of service1917–1921
RankCaptain
Battles/warsIrish War of Independence

Corry was active in farming issues, serving as Chairman of the Beet Growers' Association in the 1950s.[5] In 1966, upon the resignation of Seán Lemass as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach, Corry was among the Munster-based TDs who approached Jack Lynch to be a compromise candidate for the party leadership.[6]

Early life

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Corry was born on 12 December 1889 on 4 Victoria Road, Cork, to Martin Corry, a Royal Irish Constabulary sergeant originally from County Clare, and Julia Mary Walsh, of Cork.[7] In 1901, the family was living on Blackrock Road.[8] By 1911, after his father had retired from the RIC and taken up farming, the family were living in the townland of Monaparson, near Mourne Abbey, County Cork.[9]

IRA activity

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He was a member of the Mourneabbey Company of the Irish Volunteers.[10] Corry was Company Captain of E Company, 4 battalion, 1 Cork Brigade Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921).[2] He took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War (1922–1923) and was arrested and interned in Newbridge internment camp between December 1922 and late November 1923.[10] In 2007, it was reported that Corry's farm had been the suspected site of the execution and burial place of several people considered to be pro-British agents, spies, or informers.[2] Among these was Michael Williams, an ex-Royal Irish Constabulary officer abducted by the IRA "Irregulars" on 15 June 1922 for his alleged role in the shooting dead in 1920 of Tomás Mac Curtain, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork.[2] Corry stated he executed 27 people during the War of Independence.[3] Corry applied to the Irish government for a service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 and was awarded 8 and 5/16 years service in 1936 at Grade C for his service with the Irish Volunteers and the IRA between 1 April 1917 and 30 September 1923.[11]

Dáil career

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In a Dáil career of over forty years, Corry generally restricted himself to speaking on local issues affecting his constituents.[12] In 1953, Corry lobbied unsuccessfully for the Faber-Castell factory planned for Fermoy to be relocated further south in his territory, to the chagrin of party colleagues in Fermoy.[13]

Corry was a staunch advocate of Irish republicanism, strongly opposed to Partition, antipathetic to the United Kingdom, and sometimes bluntly outspoken within the Dáil chamber. In 1928, he criticised the Cumann na nGaedheal government's expenditure on the diplomatic corps, stating: "These salaries of £1,500 have to be paid so that they might squat like the nigger when he put on the black silk hat and the swallow-tail coat and went out and said he was an English gentleman."[14] In 1930, he claimed the government had a shortage of priorities on the matter of Ireland's's finances, telling Denis Gorey: "When we see Ministers coming here and providing £300,000 for the dole for the unemployed, one wonders whether the Government is fit to govern even a tribe of African niggers. I do not believe they are"; to which Gorey responded: "Do not be abusing your relations".[15] Corry's opposition to the Blueshirts in the early 1930s provoked an attempt to burn down his house.[16]

In the 1938 debate on the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement which ceded the Treaty Ports to the Irish state, Corry expressed regret that Northern Ireland remained excluded, suggesting: "I personally am in favour of storing up sufficient poison gas, so that when you get the wind in the right direction you can start at the Border and let it travel, and follow it."[17] In a 1942 debate on exporting food to Great Britain during World War II, Corry remarked about food shortages there that "They have no more rabbits to get, and now they are on the crows",[18] and "I would not like to see too many crows going out to feed them. I think the crows are too good for them".[18] Patrick Giles called Corry a "bounder",[18] and Alfie Byrne persisted in demanding an apology for the "unchristian" comments to the point of himself being suspended from the chamber.[19]

According to Dan Keating, Corry led a group of TDs who persuaded Taoiseach Éamon de Valera to exercise clemency when Tomás Óg Mac Curtain was sentenced to death in 1940 for shooting dead a Garda.[20] Tomás Óg Mac Curtain was an IRA member and the son of the 1920 Lord Mayor.

In 1948 and again in 1950, Corry proposed a Private member's bill to allow less restricted Sunday opening of public houses in rural areas, arguing the existing licensing law was widely flouted.[21] The bill was withdrawn after ministerial assurance of an imminent Government-sponsored licensing bill[22] (which did not materialise) and in the face of public condemnation from members of the Catholic hierarchy.[21]

At the 1957 general election he achieved the rare feat of being elected on the first count without a surplus.[23]

County councillor

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Corry was a member of Cork County Council, representing the Cobh electoral area,[24] from 1924[25] till after 1970.[26] He often clashed with Philip Monahan, the first county manager. Corry regarded the ability of the manager, an appointed bureaucrat, to overrule the elected Council as an affront to democracy, "the tail wagging the dog",[24] reducing councillors to being "a cloak for his dictatorship".[27] Corry was Chairman of the council (a position later retitled Mayor) for four years in the 1960s: 1962–1963, 1964–1965, 1967–1969.[28] In this role in 1968 he inaugurated Cork County Hall, the tallest building in the Republic of Ireland at the time.[29]

Later life

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Corry did not stand in the June 1969 general election. In May 1969, Tom Fitzpatrick had read a letter under Dáil privilege; allegedly written by Corry in 1955, it demanded £200 in cash from an engineering firm for securing a favourable County Council vote.[30] It was later alleged that Corry was compelled to stand down to avoid the allegation embarrassing the party.[31]

In November 1969, Corry was appointed a director of Comhlucht Siúicre Éireann Teoranta, the national sugar company, which was then a state-sponsored body.[32]

On 26 June 1920 Corry married Margaret Fenton, a member of Cumann na mBan. They had two sons and one daughter. He died on 14 February 1979 at the regional hospital, Wilton, Cork.[10]

According to the Dictionary of Irish Biography: "Although widely regarded as a buffoon, Corry was more able and more sinister than he appears from his outbursts in the dáil record; he represented a psychotic streak in the independence struggle and post-independence politics, widely perceived though seldom described in print."[10]

References

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  1. ^ "Martin Corry". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d Bushe, Andrew (1 July 2007). "Have secret files solved 85-yr-old murder mystery?". Sunday Mirror. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  3. ^ a b Murphy, Gerard (October 2010). "Chapter 7". The Year of Disappearances: Political Killings in Cork, 1920–1923. Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 9780717147489.
  4. ^ "Martin Corry". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  5. ^ "Recalling the early days of the National Farmers' Association". The Nationalist. 13 April 2005. Archived from the original on 24 May 2005. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  6. ^ Walsh, Dick (1986). The Party: Inside Fianna Fáil. Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 0-7171-1446-5.
  7. ^ "General Registrar's Office – SR District/Reg Area – Cork" (PDF). IrishGenealogy.ie. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  8. ^ "National Archives: Census of Ireland, 1901". census.nationalarchives.ie. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  9. ^ "National Archives: Census of Ireland, 1911". census.nationalarchives.ie. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  10. ^ a b c d Maume, Patrick. "Corry, Martin John". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  11. ^ Irish Military Archives, Military Service (1916-1923) Pension Collection, Martin John Corry, MSP34REF4079. Available online at http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/search.aspx?formtype=advanced.
  12. ^ O'Halloran, Clare (1987). Partition and the Limits of Irish Nationalism: An Ideology Under Stress. Humanities Press International. p. 35. ISBN 0-391-03502-9.
  13. ^ Ó Gráda, Cormac (1997). A Rocky Road: The Irish Economy Since the 1920s. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 112. ISBN 0-7190-4584-3.
  14. ^ "IN COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. – VOTE No. 66—EXTERNAL AFFAIRS". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 27. Government of Ireland. 21 November 1928. pp. 482–83. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  15. ^ "Eamon Ryan the latest Irish politician to say "nigger" in the Dáil". joe.ie. 11 June 2020.
  16. ^ Manning, Maurice (1971). The Blueshirts. University of Toronto Press. p. 181. ISBN 0-8020-1787-8.
  17. ^ "Agreements between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom – Motion of Approval". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 71. Government of Ireland. 29 April 1938. p. 316. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  18. ^ a b c "Committee on Finance. – Vote on Account, 1942–43 (Resumed)". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 85. Government of Ireland. 11 March 1942. pp. 2396–97. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  19. ^ "Committee on Finance. – Suspension of a Deputy". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 85. Government of Ireland. 11 March 1942. pp. 2419–21. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  20. ^ Chambers, Derry; Deirdre Clancy. "Dan Keating: "Sure we achieved nothing, the British still hold part of our country"". Island (Winter 2006–07). Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  21. ^ a b Butler, Shane (2002). Alcohol, Drugs and Health Promotion in Modern Ireland. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration. pp. 29–30. ISBN 1-902448-77-4.
  22. ^ "Private Deputies' Business. – Intoxicating Liquor (Amendment) Bill, 1950—Second Stage". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 119. Government of Ireland. 1 March 1950. pp. 1063–64. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  23. ^ "1957 General election – Cork East". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  24. ^ a b Quinlivan, Aodh (2006). Philip Monahan: A Man Apart: The Life and Times of Ireland's First Local Authority Manager. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration. pp. 78–79, 92, 99, 107, 124. ISBN 1-904541-35-6.
  25. ^ "Local Government (County Administration) Bill, 1950—Committee Stage (Resumed)". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 124. Government of Ireland. 22 February 1951. p. 714. Retrieved 14 February 2008. I have been a member of the Cork County Council since 1924.
  26. ^ "Committee on Finance. – Vote 8: Public Works and Buildings (Resumed)". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 249. Government of Ireland. 12 November 1970. p. 1319. Retrieved 14 February 2008. At a recent meeting of Cork County Council when we were discussing this matter no less a person than the great Martin Corry stated [etc.]
  27. ^ "PUBLIC BUSINESS. – CORK CITY MANAGEMENT BILL, 1928—THIRD STAGE (RESUMED)". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 26. Government of Ireland. 11 October 1928. p. 528. Retrieved 16 February 2008. [...] he is going to be there absolutely independent of any Corporation, that the Corporation are going to be there merely as a cloak for his dictatorship.
  28. ^ "History of the Mayor". Cork County Council. Archived from the original on 18 December 2007. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  29. ^ "County Hall". Cork County Council. Archived from the original on 14 February 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2008. Cork County Hall was officially opened on the 16th of April 1968 by Mr. Martin J. Corry T.D., Chairman of Cork County Council
  30. ^ "Personal Explanation by Member.". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 240. Government of Ireland. 14 May 1969. pp. 1256–57. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  31. ^ "Nomination of Member of Government: Motion (Resumed)". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 246. Government of Ireland. 7 May 1970. p. 665. Retrieved 14 February 2008. We have had evidence in this House that the former Deputy Martin Corry, a senior member of the Fianna Fáil Party, was involved in activities of bribery as a result of which it appears he was not, for the first time in his long career, a candidate for Fianna Fáil in the last general election.
  32. ^ "Written Answers. – State or Semi-State Boards". Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 247. Government of Ireland. 17 June 1970. pp. 1281–82. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
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