P. J. Ruttledge

Patrick Joseph Ruttledge (1 January 1892 – 8 May 1952) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1939 to 1941, Minister for Justice from 1933 to 1939, Minister for Lands and Fisheries from 1932 to 1933 and Vice President of Sinn Féin from 1923 to 1926. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1921 to 1951.

Born in Ballina, County Mayo, in 1892. He was educated at St Muredach's College and later at St. Enda's School, Rathfarnham, Dublin, run by Patrick Pearse. After studying at Trinity College Dublin, he qualified as a solicitor in 1918 and built up a practice in his home town.

During the Irish War of Independence he was active in the Irish Republican Army. He was a close friend of Seán Mac Diarmada, with whom he lived for some time. He also took part in local politics, becoming chair of Ballina Urban Council from 1919 to 1932 and chair of Mayo County Council from 1922 to 1926.

He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1921 as a Sinn Féin TD for Mayo North and West. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and joined the Republican forces and was seriously injured during the Civil War. He was re-elected to the Dáil again in 1923 for Mayo North and in a further ten elections until 1951. In 1926, Ruttledge was a founder-member of Fianna Fáil. In the Dail (in 1928) Ruttledge put forth a proposal for a committee to review the many long prison sentences under which many Republicans were still being held. He stated that the long sentences "reflected a partisan spirit in keeping with the vendetta by prominent political leaders at the time."

Cabinet Positions
He joined the cabinet of Éamon de Valera in 1932, serving as Minister for Lands and Fisheries, Minister for Justice and Minister for Local Government and Public Health, resigning in 1941 for the officially stated reason of "ill health". However, it is speculated by some historians that his actual motivation for the resignation was that he morally objected to the execution of IRA members by the Fianna Fáil government. Ruttledge continued to work as TD for over a decade after his resignation despite his "ill health".

Minister of Justice
During Ruttledge's tenure as Minister for Justice, three IRA men were executed for IRA activities but eight others had their death sentences commuted. Ruttledge worked to suppress a movement he considered to be fascist (the Blueshirts). In February 1933 he had their leader Eoin O'Duffy removed from his position as the Commissioner of the Irish national police force - the Garda Síochána. In 1934 Ruttledge introduced anti-fascist legislation that would prevent the Blueshirts from wearing their uniforms in public (also known as the Blueshirts Bill). In 1937 Ruttledge banned the annual IRA Easter Rising commemoration in Castlebar, County Mayo. Violence ensued with police baton charging marchers with numerous injuries and 13 arrests for Civil Disobedience (including future hunger striker Jack McNeela).

Ruttledge died in 1952 while still a member of the Dáil. He was described by The Irish Times as 'a gentle, kind and upright man'. He married Helena Roddy in 1928, and they had one son who died young and three daughters. A horsebreeder, he was a member of the Turf Club and won the Irish Derby with Mondragon in 1939.