Paddy McLogan

Who was Paddy McLogan?

Paddy J. McLogan was President of Sinn Féin from 1950–52 and again from 1954 to 1962.

Born in Markethill, Co Armagh, he spent some time in Scotland. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1913 and the Irish Volunteers. The same year he was imprisoned by the British authorities and went on a hunger strike in 1917 with Thomas Ashe. He was in command of the Irish Republican Army in South Armagh during the Irish War of Independence.

After the Irish Civil War, he settled in Portlaoise and became a publican. From 1933 to 1938 he was an abstentionist Republican Member of Parliament for South Armagh constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

He chaired the 1934 IRA Army Convention. In 1936, the IRA set up Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann, with McLogan as chairman and one of many Sinn Féin members of the party.

He was interned from 1940 to 1941. In 1945 he chaired the first IRA Army Convention after the war.

In 1950 he succeeded Margaret Buckley as President of Sinn Féin, until 1952, and resumed that role in 1954 and was to remain in the post until 1962, when he resigned from the party. He was regarded as helping to rebuild the party after World War II. Around this time, he also owned a public house on the Main Street in Port Laoise, Co. Laois, which is now known as the one and only "Ryan's". A plaque commemorates his former proprietorship.