Mark Killilea Snr

Mark Killilea
Mark Killilea
Senator
	In office; 14 December 1961 – 5 November 1969
Constituency	Labour Panel
Teachta Dála
	In office; February 1948 – October 1961
Constituency	Galway North
	In office; July 1937 – February 1948
Constituency	Galway East
	In office; January 1933 – July 1937
	In office; June 1927 – February 1932
Constituency	Galway
Personal details
Born	15 January 1897; Cloonnabricka, County Galway, Ireland
Died	29 September 1970 (aged 73); County Galway, Ireland
Political party	Fianna Fáil
Spouse	Mary Joan Turner (m. 1930)
Children	Mark Killilea Jnr
Military service
Allegiance	Irish Volunteers; Irish Republican Army; Anti-Treaty IRA;
Battles/wars	Irish War of Independence; Irish Civil War;

Mark Killilea Snr (15 January 1897 – 29 September 1970) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for constituencies in County Galway for over 30 years, and then a Senator for 8 years.

Biography

Killilea was born in the townland of Cloonnabricka, Ballinamore Bridge, County Galway, to Pat Killilea, a labourer, and Anne Giblin.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Killilea claimed membership of the Irish Volunteers from 1917 and engaged in active service with the Irish Republican Army from April 1918 to September 1923, during the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War, in counties Wexford, Galway and Mayo. He was wounded in May 1921.^[4]

Killilea was a founder-member of Fianna Fáil and a farmer and shopkeeper before entering politics.^[5] He was elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt, at the June 1927 general election in the nine-seat Galway constituency.^[5] He took his seat in the 5th Dáil, along with the 44 other Fianna Fáil TDs who ended the Republican policy of abstentionism and took the disputed oath of allegiance, dismissing it as an "empty formula".^[5]

He was re-elected at the September 1927 general election.^[6] However, in the Fianna Fáil victory at the 1932 general election, it won no new seats in Galway. All five sitting Fianna Fáil TDs stood for re-election, but the party ran a total of seven candidates in the constituency and Killilea was one of the two sitting TDs to lose their seats to party colleagues. He was re-elected the following year, displacing Cumann na nGaedheal's Joseph Mongan.

Killilea was then re-elected at all the eight general elections in the next 28 years, switching to the new Galway East constituency when the county's parliamentary representation was split at the 1937 election, and choosing Galway North after a further constituency revision for the 1948 general election.^[6]

At the 1961 general election, he lost his seat again, this time in the restored Galway East constituency. The county's three 3-seat constituencies had been replaced by the 3-seat Galway West and the 5-seat Galway East, where Killilea was one of four sitting Fianna Fáil TDs who stood for re-election. Michael Kitt and Michael Carty had both been returned at the previous general election, and Anthony Millar had won a by-election in 1958. It would have been difficult for Fianna Fáil to win four out of five seats, and with 55% of the first-preference vote the party took three seats: Killilea was the loser.^[6]

He then stood for election to Seanad Éireann on the Labour Panel, and was returned to the 10th Seanad. He was re-elected at the 1965 Seanad election to the 11th Seanad, but stood down in 1969 in favour of his son Mark Killilea Jnr, who was elected to the 12th Seanad.^[5]

He married Mary Joan Turner in 1930.^[7]

Untold Secrets allegations

In 1958 Killilea and his wife fostered Anne Silke, a former resident of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. Before she died Anne Silke gave evidence reported in the 2021 documentary Untold Secrets produced by Nova Productions and directed by Basque filmmaker Teresa Lavina that she was beaten and abused while in the family's care and used as little more than a slave. Silke alleged she was physically assaulted by the late Mark Killilea Jnr. She also alleged she was sexually assaulted by another son in the family.^[8]^[9]

References

^ "Birth records". IrishGenealogy.ie. General Registrar's Office. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
^ "Census of Ireland, 1901". Census.nationalarchives.ie. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
^ "Census of Ireland, 1911". Census.nationalarchives.ie. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
^ "Military Archives". Militaryarchives.ie. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Mark Killilea Snr". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Mark Killilea". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 12 April 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
^ "General Registrar's Office" (PDF). IrishGenealogy.ie. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
^ Hogan, Caelainn (26 July 2021). "Anne Silke: Fostered to a Fianna Fáil TD, beaten and abused". Irish Examiner.
^ Hogan, Caelainn (26 July 2021). "Tuam survivor 'was abused at late TD's home', documentary alleges". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 28 July 2021.