Mayo People
Mr. Thomas Derrig, T.D. (Tomás Ó Deirig, 1897-1956)
Mr. Thomas Derrig, T.D. who died suddenly at his home in Dublin, was a native of Westport and a former Minister in the Fianna Fail Government. He was born on November, 29th 1898 and educated at the Christian Brothers School at Westport, at University College, Galway and University College, Dublin. He took his B. Comm. Degree and the Higher Diploma in Education in the N.U. I. Entering the teaching profession, he became the headmaster of the Ballina Technical School, 1918 – ’25.
At an early age he showed strong Republican tendencies, and when a student in U.C.G assisted in the organisation of a corps of volunteers in the college in 1915. He took part in the 1916 Rising, was arrested and deported to Great Britain and interned at Frongoch, Wales. He was released in August, 1916. In the course of his internment he met many prominent figures in the Sinn Fein and Volunteer movements and these associations strengthened his republican sympathies.
Returning to Ireland he continued to organise the volunteers on a military basis, in Mayo and Galway, until in 1918 he was arrested and sentenced on retrial at Belfast Assises (the jury in Green Street, in Dublin having failed to agree) to a term of imprisonment, which he served in Belfast and Derry. Mr. Derrig, however, was released in time to take an active part on the general election of December, 1918 when Sinn Fein overwhelmingly defeated the Irish Parliamentary Party. At this time Mr. Derrig was Commandant of the West Mayo Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, subsequently the I.R.A. He held this position until his arrest and internment in January, 1921. When the truce was declared in July, 1921, he was released.
In the Dail debates on the Anglo Irish Treaty, Mr. Derrig voted against the Articles of Agreement and when the Dail decision sent the Anti-treatyites into armed revolt, Mr. Derrig joined his anti-treaty comrades in their military activities. He associated himself with the Republican forces which occupied the Four Courts where he acted as Adjutant-General. He as arrested in April, 1923, and when he attempted to escape had his eye shot out by a detective officer. After the ceasefire order in July, 1923 he remained in custody for a period of twelve months. During this time he did a forty-day hunger strike, in Kilmainham prison. From there he was liberated and in company with the late Senator David Robinson visited Arbour Hill, Mountjoy, and the Curragh prisons and persuaded the prisoners to end their hunger strike.
Mr. Derrig was elected for the North and West constituency of Mayo in 1922. After the general election of 1932, when the Fianna Fail Party was returned in sufficient strength to form a Government, Mr. Derrig became Minister for Education, a post which he held until 1939. From 1939 to 1943 he was Minister for Lands. In 1940 he resumed the portfolio of his former department of Education until Fianna Fail was defeated in the general election of 1948. In ’51 he became Minister for Lands again.
Mr. Derrig interested himself in fostering the Irish language through the national school curriculum, through grants paid to parents in the Gaeltacht. He represented the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency 1927 – 1937; Kilkenny County, 1937 – 1948 and Carlow-Kilkenny from 1948 to his death.
Mr. Derrig attended to his public duties up to his sudden passing, and took an active part in last week’s by-election campaign in Carlow-Kilkenny.
The chief mourners were: Mrs. Sinéead Ó Deirig (widow); and the Misses Una and Iosold O Deirig (daughters)
Taken from The Connaught Telegraph Nov., 24th, 1956
Contact Information:
Ivor Hamrock, Local History Department, Castlebar Central Library, John Moore Rd, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.Email: ihamrock@mayococo.ie Phone: +353 (0)94 9047953