Alfie Byrne

From Freepedia

Alfie Byrne (1882 - 1956) was an Irish Independent politician.

Known as "the shaking hand of Dublin", Alfie Byrne was born in Dublin in 1882. He was the son of a docker, who died when his son was only thirteen years old. Byrne worked as a theatre programme seller and barman before buying his own pub in Talbot Street, Dublin. He entered politics at the age of twenty-seven, being elected to Dublin Corporation for North Dock ward with a large majority. Byrne was elected to the British House of Commons in a 1915 by-election but lost his seat in the subsequent general election in 1918. In the 1922 General Election, the first to be held in Ireland after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, he was elected to Dáil Éireann. From then until his death he was an Independent TD, except from 1944 until 1948 when he was a member of Seanad Éireann. Byrne was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin for a record nine successive years from 1930 until 1939 and again from 1954 until 1955. Three of his sons were also TDs in various Dublin constituencies.

Alfie Byrne died in Dublin in March 1956.