Healy, Timothy Michael

Healy, Timothy Michael, 1855–1931, Irish statesman, first governor-general of the Irish Free State (1922–27). Elected to Parliament in 1880, he worked closely with Charles Stewart Parnell until the O'Shea divorce scandal (1890). Thereafter he led the anti-Parnell nationalists in Parliament. He was expelled from the party in 1902 but retained his seat in Parliament until 1918, when he resigned it to a Sinn Féiner. In the meantime he practiced at the bar, especially in the interests of Irish tenants and woman suffragists. On the foundation (1922) of the Irish Free State he was appointed governor-general and showed a remarkable spirit of conciliation in the performance of his duties. He resigned in 1927.