Stephen_M._O'Mara

Stephen M. O'Mara

Stephen M. O'Mara

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For his father, see Stephen O'Mara (senator).

Stephen Mary O'Mara (28 December 1883 – 11 November 1959)[1][2] was an Irish businessman and republican politician in Limerick.

O'Mara was the third son of Stephen O'Mara, Snr, a former Mayor of Limerick and briefly an Irish Parliamentary Party MP.[3][1] Stephen Jr. married Nancy O'Brien and had a son, Peter.[4] His elder brother James was an early supporter of Sinn Féin, which Stephen also joined after the Easter Rising.[1] He was a member of Limerick Corporation when the Irish War of Independence began.[1] The Mayor of Limerick, George Clancy, was killed by the Black and Tans on 7 March 1921, and O'Mara was elected in his place on 22 March.[1][5] In May, he went to the United States to replace his brother James as "fiscal agent" raising Dáil funds for the Irish Republic.[1][5][6] He was re-elected mayor in January 1922, and opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty.[1] The fact that Dáil Éireann funds in the US were in O'Mara's name as trustee caused legal difficulties for the pro-Treaty administration.[1][7][8]

In March 1922, there was a stand-off in Limerick city between pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty units of the Irish Republican Army during the transfer of bases by the withdrawing British Army.[1][5] O'Mara negotiated a resolution to this.[5] In May 1922, O'Mara established a Limerick City Police Force to replace the withdrawn Royal Irish Constabulary.[9] In June a general Civil War broke out across the nascent Irish Free State. The City Police Force was replaced in July by the Free State Civic Guard.[9] O'Mara was interned by the Free State in November, but re-elected mayor in January 1923; he was released in March.[5] He resigned as mayor in October, after the Civil War had ended in defeat for the anti-Treaty side.[5]

O'Mara was a loyal supporter of Éamon de Valera, who was staying at his home of Strand House the night the Treaty was signed.[5] O'Mara himself was still in the US with Harry Boland.[10] The evening before the 1922 general election, de Valera, O'Mara, and Boland dined together and discussed a possible grand coalition government.[11] O'Mara joined Fianna Fáil on its formation in 1926.[4] He was a member of the Commission of Vocational Organisations from 1933 to 1943.[4] His expanded the family bacon business, opening factories in Claremorris and Letterkenny.[1][4] When de Valera won the 1959 election to become President, he appointed O'Mara to the Council of State.[12] O'Mara died less than two months later in the Mater Hospital, Dublin.[2][4]

References

  1. [1]
    Humphrys, Mark. "Stephen O'Mara, of Strand House". My ancestors. HumphrysFamilyTree.com. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  2. [2]
    "Obituary: Mr Stephen M. O'Mara". The Irish Times. 11 November 1959. p. 7.
  3. [3]
    Boylan, Shaun. "O'Mara, Stephen". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  4. [4]
    "Death of Prominent Limerick Citizen" (PDF). Limerick Leader. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  5. [5]
    Ó Gríofa, Ciarán. "Stephen O'Mara and the Limerick Crisis, March 1922". Foundation Wars 1914–1923 (PDF). pp. 268–273.
  6. [6]
    Fitzpatrick, David (December 2004). Harry Boland's Irish Revolution. Cork University Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-85918-386-1. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  7. [7]
    "Dail Eireann Funds—Trustees". Oireachtas proceedings. Vol. 1. Dáil. 13 September 1922. col. 217–218.
  8. [8]
    Carroll, Francis M. (July 2002). Money for Ireland: finance, diplomacy, politics, and the first Dáil Éireann loans, 1919–1936. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-97710-8.
  9. [9]
    "Limerick Police Force, 1922". City Archives. Limerick City Council. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  10. [10]
    Fitzpatrick 2004, p.263
  11. [11]
    Fitzpatrick 2004, p.280
  12. [12]
    "New members of Council of State". The Irish Times. 24 September 1959. p. 1.
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