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Peter J. Ward

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Peter J. Ward
Ward in 1919
Teachta Dála
In office
May 1921 – 1 August 1924
ConstituencyDonegal
In office
December 1918 – May 1921
ConstituencyDonegal South
Personal details
Born(1891-11-01)1 November 1891
County Donegal, Ireland
Died1 June 1970(1970-06-01) (aged 78)
County Donegal, Ireland
Party
Children2
British Army intelligence file for Peter Joseph Ward
British Army intelligence file for Peter Joseph Ward

Peter Joseph Ward (1 November 1891 – 6 January 1970) was an Irish lawyer and Sinn Féin (later Cumann na nGaedheal) politician in County Donegal. He served as a TD from 1918 until his resignation in 1924.[1] He was also chairman of Donegal County Council after the 1920 local elections.[2] From 1926 to 1961 he was county registrar for County Donegal.[2] On his retirement from which the Derry Journal called him "one of the best known men in the county".[2]

A native of Killybegs,[2] Ward was was the son of schoolteacher John Ward and Anne Byrne.[citation needed] His father was a Gaelic League organiser.[3] Ward graduated from University College Dublin where he had played for the college association football team.[3] He qualified as a solicitor in 1915.[2] In the 1918 general election to the UK House of Commons, in which Sinn Féin had stood on an abstentionist platform, he was returned unopposed in the single-seat constituency of South Donegal.[4] Sinn Féin won 73 of the 105 seats in Ireland and established Dáil Éireann in January 1919, with its members known as Teachtaí Dála (TDs). Ward was one of 27 TDs present in the Mansion House, Dublin for the inaugural meeting on 21 January 1919.[5] As Commandant of the South Donegal Brigade of the Irish Republican Army he was active in the Irish War of Independence and being "on the run" from, and later imprisoned by, the British authorities limited his participation as a TD.[3] Afer being released from hunger strike, he was elected at the 1920 Donegal County Council election and became chairman of the council.[2][6] He was also elected as one of six Sinn Féin candidates returned unopposed for Donegal at the 1921 Irish election to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland.[4] Sinn Féin did not recognise this new body, treating it as the election to the 2nd Dáil.

Ward voted in favour of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922, and in the 1922 election the same six TDs were returned unopposed for Donegal under the Collins–de Valera pact.[4] Ward joined Cumann na nGaedheal when that party was formed in early 1923 by former pro-Treaty Sinn Féin TDs who backed the 1st executive council of the Irish Free State. He reluctantly agreed to stand for Cumann na nGaedheal in the 1923 general election that followed the end of the Irish Civil War,[7] where he was one of eight TDs returned in Donegal from 19 candidates. Around this time he was Donegal GAA County Board Chairman.[3]

He was anxious to return to his legal practice after the Courts of Justice Act 1924 had settled the legal landscape after the Irish revolutionary period.[7][2] He resigned his seat on 1 August 1924,[8] and the ensuing by-election in November was won by the Cumann na nGaedheal candidate Denis McCullough. His legal work was in Killybegs and Donegal town.[3] In 1926, Ward was appointed as county registrar under the Courts of Justice Act 1924.[2] After his 1961 retirement he lived in Raphoe.[3]

Ward died in Lifford District Hospital. He had two children, a son John P. Ward, a solicitor, and a daughter, Sister Eunan, "of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, Biafra".[3]

Further reading

[edit]
  • "Obituary". Irish Press. 7 January 1970. p. 12.

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Peter J. Ward". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Retirement of Donegal County Registrar: Circuit Court Tributes to Mr. P. J. Ward". Derry Journal. 4 August 1961. p. 1. Retrieved 6 May 2026 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 C. K. (9 January 1970). "Donegal's first T.D.". Donegal Democrat. p. 1.
  4. 1 2 3 "Peter J. Ward". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "3. An Rolla". Dáil Debates. F (1). Houses of the Oireachtas. 21 January 1919. Retrieved 7 May 2026. Dún na nGall (theas)[—]Peadar Mac an Bháird[—]i láthair
  6. ↑ "Donegal County Council, Released Hunger Striker Elected Chairman". Belfast News-Letter. 19 June 1920 – via britishnewspaperarchive.
  7. 1 2 "Dail Vacancies. Names of Possible Candidates". Weekly Freeman's Journal. 28 June 1924. p. 4. Retrieved 6 May 2026 – via britishnewspaperarchive.
  8. ↑ "Resignation of Deputies". Dáil Debates. 8 (21). Houses of the Oireachtas. 1 August 1924. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
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