James Coburn (Irish politician)
James Coburn, also known as "The Juker" Coburn, was an Irish politician. A builders foreman, he was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a National League Party Teachta Dála for the Louth constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the September 1927 general election but became an independent TD in July 1931 following the disbandment of the National League Party. He was re-elected as an independent TD at the 1932 and 1933 general elections. At the 1937 general election he was re-elected as a Fine Gael TD for Louth. He was re-elected at each general election until the 1951 general election. His background as a builder led to Fianna Fáil supporters disrupting Coburn's rallies at election time by singing "A mason once again" to the tune of the Fine Gael anthem A Nation Once Again.
Coburn had sympathetic attitudes to Mussolini stating in the Dail in 1937 that "If I had a choice between Mussolini as leader, as President of the Irish Free State—if I had to make my choice as between him and the man representing Labour, that representative of sloppy sentimentalism in the form of cheap sloppy democracy, I would vote a thousand times for Mussolini. I am a trade unionist and a working man, and I know that under a man like Mussolini you will have protection and law and order and nothing will be taken by the waster from the thrifty section of the community."
He died during the 14th Dáil and the subsequent by-election on 3 March 1954 was won by his son George Coburn.
