But the sparring between Murphy and O’Sullivan continued. The Killarney Echo and South Kerry Chronicle, owned by the Quinnell family, gave John Murphy a column on the front page of the paper in September 1913 and continued to run it until 1919. In January 1914, following the Urban Council election, the opinion piece entitled ‘Murphy on Places, Persons and Public Affairs’ stated:
People in Killarney are surprised how Messrs James T. O’Connor, Eugene O’Sullivan, Cornelius Collins and Cornelius Counihan got at the head of the list. Of course, these elections, it is to be regretted, are never a test of anything, as there is practically no opposition, and certainly in Killarney there never was less public interest manifested in them. The strange thing, however, is that four gentlemen who in all matters were supposed to be as far apart as North, South, East and West, came out on top.4
Later in the piece, there is a more direct reference to O’Sullivan: ‘There are already rumours about the qualifications of Urban Councillors being tested in Killarney. I think I will test Mr Eugene O’Sullivan’s right to remain in the Urban Council myself.’ He goes on to suggest that his erstwhile opponent should have been disqualified as he had been a paid officer of the county council and as recently as early January 1914 had acted as a member of the County Kerry Technical Committee, ‘which of course he was disqualified from doing’. Whether he did test this or not, O’Sullivan remained in situ. The Cork Constitution newspaper made a mischevious comment on the outcome of the petition: ‘The two unseated English Ministerialists have been raised in the peerage, and we shall probably hear Mr Craig one of these days asking the Prime Minister whether he intends to follow this precedent in the case of Mr Eugene O’Sullivan, who is also a pledged Ministerial supporter.’ Charles Craig was a unionist MP and father of the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Viscount Craigavon.
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There was a setback for Eugene O’Sullivan, however, when the Irish Volunteers in Killarney decided to hold a fresh election of officers following an upsurge of membership in September 1914. O’Sullivan was identified as being more closely aligned with the authorities than the segment that was drilling with the intention of fighting for Irish freedom and was regarded with suspicion by many of the newer Volunteers. He did seem to misjudge the situation and Killarney Volunteers leaders Michael O’Sullivan and Michael Spillane give a colourful account of his bid to become the chairman in their joint contribution to the Military Archives. One needs to take a jaundiced view of the recollections of those speaking thirty-four years after the events described and, besides, Eugene was not, at this point, in a position to respond to their version of events, having died eighteen years previously, but it does at least paint an outline of what occurred. It is stated that O’Sullivan had canvassed the existing officers to ask them to withdraw in favour of his nomination for the chair beforehand. He arrived at the meeting ‘at the head of from 30 to 40 men, and more or less took the hall by storm’. But things did not transpire as he had hoped:
Michael Spillane was then proposed and seconded and he then took the chair. Eugene O’Sullivan protested and claimed it as his right, as Chairman of the Urban Council, to be appointed Captain of the Volunteers. Spillane replied, ‘I do not want the job but if the men want me, I will act.’ O’Sullivan replied, ‘I know that, and you would be surprised how much I know’ … Spillane then asked all who wanted him as Captain to go to the right of the hall. There were very few left for O’Sullivan and he left the hall, after pouring abuse at An Seabhac, with a good deal less followers than came with him.5
‘An Seabhac’ was Pádraig Ó Siochfradha from Dingle, a teacher who was giving classes in Irish in Killarney and who was elected chairman of the county council in 1920 after Sinn Féin won the election. He wrote under the name ‘An Seabhac’ (The Hawk), Jimín Máire Thaidhg and An Baile Seo Gainne being his best-known works, and he later served in the Seanad from 1944 to 1948. John Murphy clearly identified with the republican element and in early 1918 Spillane and O’Sullivan refer to him chairing an anti-conscription meeting in Killarney.
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Tensions between the principal protagonists eased for a substantial period in the second decade of the twentieth century. Eugene O’Sullivan was settling into a spell of being routinely re-elected chairman of Killarney UDC, although he confronted a challenge of a rather unusual nature on 23 January 1917.6 At 11am, Councillor O’Sullivan and his supporters arrived at the chamber for the election. Denis J. Courtney proposed and David Hurley seconded O’Sullivan for the chair and he was duly re-elected. William Ahern proposed and Mr Courtney seconded Con Counihan for the vice-chair and he was also deemed elected. However, at midday, John Hilliard and the other councillors arrived. Another meeting was begun and Thaddeus T. O’Connor proposed Mr Hilliard as chairman, a motion seconded by Peter Huggard, ironically the man who had been co-opted to fill the seat when Maurice Leonard had been disqualified in 1909. T.T. O’Connor was then elected (also unopposed) to the position of vice-chairman.
Eugene O’Sullivan MP.
John Murphy MP and his wife, Anne (née McCarthy) (Seán Murphy).
Hilliard then handed the acting clerk – none other than John Murphy – a message requiring a letter be sent to the Lord Chancellor, requesting that he, Hilliard, be appointed a magistrate, having been elected chairman. Murphy endeavoured to contact the council solicitor, Maurice McCartie, but he was in court in Cahersiveen. McCartie had been Eugene O’Sullivan’s solicitor in the petition to unseat proceedings following the general election in 1910. The Lord Chancellor, though, declined to intervene, referring the matter to the Local Government Board for adjudication. In the meantime, O’Sullivan convened a meeting at which Michael Murray was appointed town clerk. Hilliard, however, wished to have John Murphy appointed to the position, but the situation was ultimately resolved, again, in favour of Eugene O’Sullivan.
There had also been an associated, tense battle involving rival supporters of the two men for the chairmanship of the county council two years earlier. The protagonists in this instance were another two Killarney members, James O’Shea and James T. O’Connor, one of those elected to the very first council in 1899 who had confronted O’Sullivan about respecting the decision of the meeting at the selection convention in 1906. O’Shea, a dairy farmer from Gortahoonig, Muckross had contested the position with M.J. Nolan the previous year and had been none too gracious about the matter following his defeat. However, when confronted by a well-known supporter of Murphy’s, good grace did not enter the matter for one moment. O’Shea had been elected for the Aghadoe ED in 1914 (having narrowly lost in 1911). As chairman of Killarney Rural District Council, he was already entitled to sit as a member, but he was also elected in the poll. He challenged the incumbent George O’Gorman in 1908 and won, but in 1911, the Ballyhar man came back to win by a single vote following a recount.
As one would almost anticipate in this tale of vexatious rivalry, O’Gorman had been the man who had attempted to propose Eugene O’Sullivan at the uncompleted Irish Party convention in 1906. At the 1915 county council meeting, chairman Nolan called the meeting to order with a full schedule of members present. Fireworks had been expected and the chairman indicated that he was not putting his name forward on this occasion. John J. Sheehan (Sneem Electoral Union) proposed J.T. O’Connor for the chair and P.J. Moynihan (Headford) seconded. James O’Shea was nominated by Michael J. O’Donnell (Castlegregory, later also a member of Fianna Fáil) and John Healy (Ardfert) seconded. For a moment, it seemed as if war could be averted when the ‘father of the house’, Edward Fitzgerald from Cahersiveen, was asked to allow his name to go forward, but he declined after a quick discussion with O’Connor.
The vote was called and O’Connor was declared the winner by 18–8. He addressed the members and thanked those who had voted for him, including Fitzgerald, who had withdrawn in his favour. James O’Shea rose ‘on