Charles McGleenan

Charles McGleenan (1894 - 1974 fl.1966) was a farmer and a Republican politician in Northern Ireland.

McGleenan was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. He was interned in Newbridge Prison, but successfully escaped. He subsequently worked as a farmer of apples.^[1]

At the 1935 UK general election, McGleenan stood in Armagh as an Independent Republican, winning 32.4% of the vote.^[2] He joined the Anti-Partition League of Ireland (APL) when it was founded in 1945.^[1]

In May 1950, the APL conference voted down a motion calling for abstentionism from the Parliament of Northern Ireland. McGleenan had been a supporter of the motion, and when a local convention selected him as their candidate for the South Armagh by-election, 1950, this was in clear opposition to party policy. Despite this, the executive did not intervene,^[3] and McGleenan was able to easily defeat an Irish Labour Party candidate.^[4]

McGleenan did not take his seat,^[1] but did join with the Nationalist Party MPs Cahir Healy, Joe Connellan and Edward McCullagh in lobbying for admission to the Dáil, as elected representatives of territory it claimed.^[3] A motion from Con Lehane proposing this was rejected; later in the year, a more modest proposal of McGleenan's to gain a right of audience in the Dáil or the Seanad Éireann was put by Seán MacBride, but was also lost.^[5][6]

McGleenan held his seat in an uncontested election in 1953, but stood down at the 1958 general election.^[4] At the 1966 UK general election, McGleenan stood again in Armagh, on this occasion taking 28% of the vote.^[7]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Biographies of Members of the Northern Ireland House of Commons
2. ^ Armagh (1935): ElectionsIreland.org
3. ^ ^{a b} Michael Farrell, Northern Ireland: The Orange State
4. ^ ^{a b} Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results: Counties: Armagh
5. ^ The Round Table, Vol XLI (1951)
6. ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 126 - 19 July, 1951: Committee on Finance - Six-County Oireachtas Representation
7. ^ Armagh 1950-1970, Northern Ireland Elections

Parliament of Northern Ireland
Preceded by Malachy Conlon	Member of Parliament for South Armagh 1950 - 1958	Succeeded by Edward George Richardson