James Lennon


James Lennon was an Irish Sinn Féin politician.

Early life

Lennon was born in Cournellan, Borris, County Carlow.

Career

He was elected unopposed as a Sinn Féin MP for the Carlow constituency at the 1918 general election. In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled at the Mansion House in Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann, though Lennon did not attend as he was in prison.
He again elected unopposed for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency at the 1921 elections. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted against it. He stood unsuccessfully as an anti-Treaty Sinn Féin candidate at the 1922 general election.
In later life, he was associated with the Irish Monetary Reform Association as its "founder and general secretary". In 1941 he was "responsible for the Irish National Monetary Reform Association issuing its historic constitution and manifesto". These documents were "influenced by and based on" the papal encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno.
In 1947, he named in the Irish Press as the Irish Monetary Reform Association nominee for the Carlow–Kilkenny in the 1948 general election for the party. However, he did not contest the election. A party colleague, William Milner, ran in the neighbouring Laois–Offaly constituency.

Death

Lennon died on 13 August 1958.