Mark Killilea, Snr

Who was Mark Killilea, Snr?

Mark Killilea, Snr was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was a Teachta Dála for constituencies in County Galway for over thirty years, and then a Senator for 8 years.

Killilea was a founder-member of Fianna Fáil and a farmer and shopkeeper before entering politics. He was elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt, at the June 1927 general election in the nine-seat Galway constituency. 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".

He was re-elected at the September 1927 general election. 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.