Editing Domhnall Ua Buachalla

{{Short description|Irish politician (1866–1963)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
 | name          = Domhnall Ua Buachalla
 | image         = Domhnaill Ua Buachalia circa 1932.jpg
 | caption       = Ua Buachalia {{circa|1932}}
 | office        = [[Governor-General of the Irish Free State]]
 | term_start    = 27 November 1932
 | term_end      = 11 December 1936
 | monarch       = {{ubl|[[George V]]|[[Edward VIII]]}}
 | predecessor   = [[James McNeill]]
 | successor     = Office abolished
 | office2       = [[Teachta Dála]]
 | term_start2   = [[June 1927 Irish general election|June 1927]]
 | term_end2     = [[1932 Irish general election|February 1932]]
 | constituency2 = [[Kildare (Dáil constituency)|Kildare]]
 | term_start3   = [[1921 Irish elections|May 1921]]
 | term_end3     = [[1922 Irish general election|June 1922]]
 | constituency3 = [[Kildare–Wicklow (Dáil constituency)|Kildare–Wicklow]]
 | term_start4   = [[1918 Irish general election|December 1918]]
 | term_end4     = [[1921 Irish elections|May 1921]]
 | constituency4 = [[North Kildare (UK Parliament constituency)|Kildare North]]
 | birth_date    = {{birth date|1866|2|3|df=y}}
 | birth_place   = [[Maynooth]], [[County Kildare]], Ireland
 | death_date    = {{death date and age|1963|10|30|1866|2|3|df=y}}
 | death_place   = [[Dublin]], Ireland
 | alma_mater    = 
 | education     =
 | spouse        = {{marriage|Sinéad Walsh|1891|1918|end=d.}}
 | children      = 7
}}

'''Domhnall Ua Buachalla''' ({{IPA|ga|ˈd̪ˠoːnˠəl̪ˠ uə ˈbˠuəxəl̪ˠə|lang}}; {{langx|en|'''Daniel Richard''' "'''Donal'''" '''Buckley'''}}; 3 February 1866 – 30 October 1963) was an [[Irish people|Irish]] politician and member of the [[First Dáil]] who served as third and final [[governor-general of the Irish Free State]] from 1932 to 1936, and later served as a member of the [[Council of State (Ireland)|Council of State]] from 1959 until his death.<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Donal-Buckley.D.1919-01-21/|title=Donal Buckley|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=20 August 2010|archive-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108025948/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Donal-Buckley.D.1919-01-21|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Early life==
Ua Buachalla was born in [[Maynooth]] in [[County Kildare]] on 3 February 1866.<ref name="birthregistration">{{cite web |url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1866/03543/2304138.pdf|title=Births in the District of Maynooth in the Union of Celbridge, 1866 |website=irishgenealogy.ie |at=Entry Numbers 140–149 |access-date=1 March 2021 | quote = 144 [..] Third February 1866 Maynooth [..] Daniel [..] Male [..] Cornelius Buckley Maynooth [..] Sarah Buckley formerly Jacob [..] Shopkeeper }}</ref> His birth was registered as Daniel, the son of Cornelius Buckley, a shopkeeper, and Sarah Buckley, née Jacob.<ref name="birthregistration"/> He married Sinéad Walsh in [[Dolphin's Barn]], [[Dublin]] on 3 June 1897.<ref name="marriageregistration">{{cite web |url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1897/10454/5806951.pdf |title=Marriages in the Superintendent Registrar's District of South Dublin, 1897 |website=irishgenealogy.ie |at=Entry Numbers 135–138 |access-date=1 March 2021 |archive-date=25 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925012905/https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/captcha.jsp |url-status=live }}</ref> After his marriage, he and his family lived in [[Maynooth]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Kildare/Maynooth/Leinster_Street/1437940/ |title=Residents of a house 7 in Leinster Street (Maynooth, Kildare) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=31 March 1901 |website=census.nationalarchives.ie |access-date=1 March 2010 |archive-date=25 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925012859/http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Kildare/Maynooth/Leinster_Street/1437940/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Kildare/Maynooth/Main_Street/540761/ |title=Residents of a house 29 in Main Street (Maynooth, Kildare) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2 April 1911 |website=census.nationalarchives.ie |access-date=1 March 2010 |archive-date=25 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925012908/http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Kildare/Maynooth/Main_Street/540761/ |url-status=live }}</ref> where he ran a combined grocery, bicycle shop and pub in the town. He was an [[Irish language]] activist and member of [[Conradh na Gaeilge]]. In 1907, he was arrested and had his groceries seized when he refused to pay a fine for having his grocery wagon painted with ''Domhnall Ua Buachalla'' (his name in the [[Irish language]]), as British law required grocery wagons to be registered only in the English language.<ref name=time>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882430,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027070033/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882430,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 October 2010|title=Irish Free State: King George's Domhnall|magazine=Time|access-date=20 August 2010| date=5 December 1932}}</ref>

==1916–1932==
He was a member of the [[Irish Volunteers]] and on the outbreak of the 1916 [[Easter Rising]], he cycled the 26 kilometres to Dublin, found the Rising was on and returned to [[Maynooth]], where he gathered his men, marched them to Dublin and fought in the GPO and as a sniper in outposts in the Exchange Hotel in [[Parliament Street, Dublin|Parliament Street]] and Arnott's of Henry Street; he was a crack shot. On the retreat from the GPO he was sent on a sortie and made it to the William and Woods factory but found it full of looters and left. He made it to the [[Broadstone railway station]] but was held there by British soldiers and sent to [[Richmond Barracks]] and from there to Knutsford Prison and then [[Frongoch internment camp]] in Wales.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0194.pdf |title=Bureau of Military History, 1913–21. Statement By Witness. Document No. W.S. 194. |last=Ua Buachalla |first=Domhnall |author-link=Domhnall Ua Buachalla |date=16 February 1949 |website=militaryarchives.ie |access-date=1 March 2021 |archive-date=27 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927075614/http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0194.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> He was released a few days before Christmas 1916, and describes the prisoners getting a "royal welcome" on their return. Like many Rising survivors, he joined [[Sinn Féin]], a small separatist party that was wrongly blamed by the British government for the Easter Rising. In the aftermath of the Rising, survivors led by [[Éamon de Valera]] took over the party in the struggle for the establishment of an Irish republic. Ua Buachalla was elected as a Sinn Féin MP for [[North Kildare (UK Parliament constituency)|Kildare North]] at the [[1918 Irish general election|1918 general election]]. He served in the [[First Dáil]] (1918–1921), and was re-elected to the [[Second Dáil]] in 1921 as a [[Teachta Dála]] (TD) for [[Kildare–Wicklow (Dáil constituency)|Kildare–Wicklow]].<ref name=dib>{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/o-buachalla-ua-buachalla-domhnall-donaldaniel-richard-buckley-a6284|title=Ó Buachalla (Ua Buachalla), Domhnall (Donal/Daniel Richard Buckley)|work=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]]|last=Coleman|first=Marie |access-date=8 January 2022}}</ref> He sided with de Valera and opposed the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]]. He fought in the [[Four Courts]] in the [[Irish Civil War|Civil War]]. Imprisoned in [[Dundalk]] jail, he was released by the Anti-Treaty troops in August 1922.<ref name=biography>{{cite web|url=http://www.archontology.org/nations/eire/eire_gg/buckley.php|title=Biography of Ua Buachalla|work=archontology.org|access-date=20 August 2010|archive-date=6 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806023441/http://www.archontology.org/nations/eire/eire_gg/buckley.php|url-status=live}}</ref> He lost his seat at the [[1922 Irish general election|1922 general election]], and was an unsuccessful candidate at the [[1923 Irish general election|1923 general election]].

==Irish governor-general==
He joined [[Fianna Fáil]] on its foundation in 1926 and was elected as a Fianna Fáil TD for the [[Kildare (Dáil constituency)|Kildare constituency]] at the [[June 1927 Irish general election|June 1927 general election]], only to lose that seat in the [[1932 Irish general election|1932 general election]], which Fianna Fáil won.<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1317|title=Donal Buckley|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=20 August 2010|archive-date=22 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222072324/http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1317|url-status=live}}</ref> He was chosen by Éamon de Valera to become [[Governor-General of the Irish Free State]] following [[James McNeill]]'s resignation in November 1932.

==Instruction to keep a low profile==
De Valera explicitly instructed Ua Buachalla as Governor-General to keep a low public profile, and not to fulfil public engagements, which was part of de Valera's policy to make the office an irrelevance by reducing it to invisibility. While he continued to give [[royal assent (Ireland)|royal assent]] to legislation, summon and dissolve [[Dáil Éireann]] and fulfil the other formal duties of the office, he declined all public invitations and kept himself invisible, as advised by his Government. In fact in his period in office he performed only one public function: the receipt of the credentials of the French Ambassador to Ireland in the Council Chamber, Government Buildings, 1933, on behalf of King [[George V]]. However, de Valera subsequently had that duty moved from the Governor-General to his own post of [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|President of the Executive Council]];
instead of presenting his credentials to Ua Buachalla, the US Legation Minister, [[William Wallace McDowell]], presented himself to de Valera.<ref name="TIME">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080501131445/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C929707%2C00.html Seanascal Domnhall], ''[[TIME]]'', April 9, 1934</ref>

One of the few other occasions Ua Buachalla was mentioned at all in public was when, in the aftermath of the death of King George V in January 1936, he had to reply to messages of condolence sent to the Irish people by United States President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[United States Secretary of State]] [[Cordell Hull]].

On de Valera's instruction, Ua Buachalla did not reside in the official residence of the Governor-General, the Viceregal Lodge (now called [[Áras an Uachtaráin]], the residence of the [[President of Ireland]]).<ref name="TIME" /> Instead, a house was rented for his use in [[Monkstown, County Dublin|Monkstown]], outside of Dublin.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/0508/037.html |title=Permalink - Stills Library - RTÉ Archives |date=5 July 2012 |access-date=28 September 2016 |archive-date=2 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002043340/https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/0508/037.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The official English title "Governor-General" was largely replaced by the official [[Irish language|Irish]] title "Seanascal" or its direct translation, "[[Seneschal]]"; however, "Governor-General" remained the legal form used in official English-language documents and proclamations.<ref>[http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000580782 Headed paper and seal of the Governor General (Seanascal) of the Irish Free State] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001221343/http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000580782 |date=1 October 2016 }}, [[National Library of Ireland]]</ref> Ua Buachalla refused all but [[Irish pound|£]]2,000 of the £10,000 salary of the Governor-General.

==Falling out with de Valera==
Ua Buachalla fell out with de Valera over the manner of his exit from office, in December 1936. De Valera sought to use the [[Edward VIII abdication crisis|abdication crisis]] surrounding King [[Edward VIII of the United Kingdom|Edward VIII]] to amend the Irish Free State's Constitution to abolish both the [[The Crown|Crown]] and the office of governor-general. Having done so, he faced a threat of a court case from Ua Buachalla, who had been left personally liable for the remaining one year's expensive private lease on his residence, following the sudden abolition of his office. In practice, between 1933 and December 1936, the Irish government had paid Ua Buachalla expenses, from which he paid the rent on the expensive residence which was picked for him.

However, from December 1936, the government insisted that it had no responsibility for paying for the residence. Ua Buachalla had, in 1932, on de Valera's explicit advice, leased the residence for a full five years, which was his expected term of office. There remained one year's outstanding lease, for a residence he could not now afford and for which he had no need now as he was no longer governor-general. Eventually, de Valera was forced to grant Ua Buachalla a large pension and to pay his outstanding rent and expenses to stop a potentially embarrassing court case going ahead.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1937/act/20/section/4/enacted/en/html |title=Executive Powers (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937 |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=14 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714120251/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1937/act/20/section/4/enacted/en/html |url-status=live }}</ref>  Ua Buachalla attended the inauguration of the first [[President of Ireland]], [[Douglas Hyde]], in [[Dublin Castle]] in June 1938.

==Appointment to Council of State and later life==
Ua Buachalla and de Valera reunited as political partners, and in a symbolic act of apology, de Valera, when elected [[President of Ireland]] in 1959 appointed Ua Buachalla to his advisory [[Council of State (Ireland)|Council of State]]. However, he returned to Maynooth to continue running his family business, the hardware store which had been founded in 1853.

Domhnall Ua Buachalla died on 30 October 1963, aged 97, in a nursing home in Dublin.<ref name="deathregistration">{{cite web |url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1963/04277/4099817.pdf |title=Deaths in the Superintendent Registrar's District of Dublin, 1963 |website=irishgenealogy.ie |at=Entry Numbers 426–435 |access-date=1 March 2021 |archive-date=25 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925012900/https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/captcha.jsp |url-status=live }}</ref> He was given a [[list of Irish state funerals|state funeral]] and buried in Laraghbryan Cemetery in [[Maynooth]], with the graveside oration delivered by President de Valera.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kildare.ie/library/ehistory/2009/02/funeral_of_domhnall_ua_buachal_1.asp|title=Funeral of Domhnall Ua Buachalla|work=Co. Kildare Online Electronic History Journal|access-date=20 August 2010|archive-date=29 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100129063903/http://www.kildare.ie/library/ehistory/2009/02/funeral_of_domhnall_ua_buachal_1.asp|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Ua Buachalla hardware store closed in October 2005. The road beside this store is named after him (although translated to English as "Buckley's Lane"). The building has been demolished, but some of the frontage has been preserved, with the building bearing the name "Buckley House".

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef|before = [[John O'Connor (North Kildare MP)|John O'Connor]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[North Kildare (UK Parliament constituency)|Kildare North]]
       |years  = 1918–1922}}
{{s-non|reason = Constituency abolished}}
{{s-par|ie/oi}}
{{s-new|constituency}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Teachta Dála]] for [[North Kildare (UK Parliament constituency)|Kildare North]]
       |years  = 1918–1921}}
{{s-non|reason = Constituency abolished}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before = [[James McNeill]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Governor-General of the Irish Free State]]
       |years  = 1932–1936}}
{{s-non|reason = Office abolished}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governor-General of the Irish Free State}}
{{Kildare–Wicklow (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}
{{Kildare (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ua Buachalla, Domhnall}}
[[Category:1866 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:Members of the 1st Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 2nd Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 5th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 6th Dáil]]
[[Category:Early Sinn Féin TDs]]
[[Category:Fianna Fáil TDs]]
[[Category:Politicians from County Kildare]]
[[Category:Irish language activists]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1918–1922]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Kildare constituencies (1801–1922)]]
[[Category:Governors-general of the Irish Free State]]
[[Category:People of the Irish Civil War (Anti-Treaty side)]]
[[Category:People of the Easter Rising]]
[[Category:Presidential appointees to the Council of State (Ireland)]]
[[Category:People from Maynooth]]
[[Category:Burials in Laraghbryan Cemetery]]