Alfie Byrne

Early life

The second of seven children, his childhood home was at 36 Seville Place, a terraced house with five rooms just off Dublin's North Strand. Byrne dropped out of school at the age of 13, and was soon juggling jobs as a grocer’s assistant and a bicycle mechanic. Eventually he used his savings to buy a pub on Talbot Street.

Early political career

Byrne became an Alderman on Dublin Corporation in 1914. He was a member of the Dublin Port and Docks Board, a significant position for a politician from the Dublin Harbour constituency. In the records of the Oireachtas his occupation is given as company director. He was elected as an MP for Dublin Harbour in a by-election on 1 October 1915 as an Irish Parliamentary Party candidate. and later to Dail Eireann as an independent in favour of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Without the benefit of a party machine, he soon realised that attending to constituents' needs was the only sure way to retain his seat. In several elections he secured more votes than any other politician in the country. His personal archive, which is on view in The Little Museum of Dublin, includes many letters from men who thought he could find them a wife.

The 1916 Easter Rising was followed by the rapid decline of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the rise of Sinn Fein, even in the formerly immensely safe Dublin Harbour constituency. At the 1918 general election Byrne was defeated by Sinn Fein candidate Philip Shanahan. Following independence, Byrne was elected as an independent TD for the Dublin Mid constituency at the 1922 general election to the Third Dail. From 1923 to 1928, he represented Dublin North. He was an elected a member of Seanad Eireann, for a six-year term, in 1928. He vacated his Dail seat on 4 December 1928. He resigned from the Seanad on 10 December 1931. Byrne returned to the Dail in 1932 and sat there until his death in 1956. He represented Dublin North (1932–37) and Dublin North–East (1937–56).

Lord Mayor (1930–39)

Byrne was elected as Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1930, serving in the post for nine consecutive years. When cycling or walking around the city he dispensed lollipops to children, who were often seen chasing him down the street. With a handshake and a few words for all, his eternal canvassing soon earned him the first of his nicknames: the Shaking Hand of Dublin.

Married with eight children, Byrne treated the people of Dublin as his second family. Every morning he would find up to fifty people waiting for him in the Mansion House. None had appointments. All were met. Byrne answered 15,000 letters in his first year as Lord Mayor. Many were from Dubliners looking for a job, a house, some advice or a reference. One morning in 1931 a journalist watched the Lord Mayor attend to his correspondence. Within an hour he accepted “seventeen invitations to public dinners, one invitation to a public entertainment and eight invitations to public functions.” Then he dictated forty-three sympathetic letters to men and women looking for employment.

In 1937, children between the ages of eight and eleven years old were being sentenced to spend up to five years in Industrial Schools. Their crime was stealing a few apples from an orchard. When Byrne said such sentences were “savage,” a judge responded with a defence of the Industrial School system, urging an end to "ridiculous Mansion House mummery." Byrne stood firm: "For the punishment of trifling offences the home of the children is better than any institution."

In 1938 Byrne was favoured by the press for the presidency of Ireland, a ceremonial role created in the new Constitution, but he was outgunned by the political establishment.

Relations with the US and the UK

When, in 1935, Byrne became the first Lord Mayor of Dublin to visit North America in 40 years, he was granted the freedom of Toronto, and the New York Times hailed the arrival of a “champion showman.” Byrne often extended a hand of friendship to Britain. He also improved relations between Dublin (until recently the centre of British authority) and the rest of the country. One night Dublin Fire Brigade got an urgent call for assistance from Clones. As Lord Mayor, Byrne felt obliged to join the men on top of the fire engine as they set off on the 85-mile journey in the middle of the night.

Anti-communist connections

In August 1936, Byrne addressed the inaugural meeting of the anti-communist Irish Christian Front, some of whose members later expressed anti-Semitic views. In 1938, as lord mayor, he presented a gift of a replica of the Ardagh Chalice to Italian naval cadets visiting Dublin on board two warships, who had been welcomed by the Irish government despite the protests of Dubliners. A photograph exists of Byrne giving a fascist salute along with Eoin O'Duffy, commander of the Blueshirts, around 1933.

Final term as Lord Mayor (1954)

In 1954, Byrne was elected as Lord Mayor for a record tenth time. This time he did not live in the Mansion House, but stayed in Rathmines with his family, taking the bus to work each morning. He was just as devoted to the job. When flooding damaged 20,000 houses in Fairview and North Strand, he rose from his sick bed to organize a relief fund.

Byrne's final term as Lord Mayor came to an end in 1955. Shortly afterwards, Trinity College, Dublin awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Law, describing him as a “champion of the poor and needy, and a friend of all men.”

Death

Alfie Byrne died on 13 March 1956. An obituary in The Irish Times noted:

For more than forty years, he was a prominent figure in public life, serving his country and city with a rare and single-minded devotion. Himself a true Dubliner, he had a profound understanding of, and deep sympathy for, the needs and interests of his fellow-citizens, especially the poor. It is not too much to say that he lived for them, for wherever there was distress, he was promptly on the spot to ensure that assistance was made available with the utmost speed.

Byrne’s funeral was the largest seen in Dublin for many years. The Evening Herald reported that "Traffic in O'Connell Street was held up for almost 20 minutes to allow the cortege of over 150 motor cars to pass, and at all the junctions along the route to Glasnevin people silently gathered to pay tribute to one of Dublin’s most famous sons".

The Irish Times noted that "one of the largest groups of people gathered at the Five Lamps, one of the few places at which Alderman Byrne always made a speech during his election campaign for Dublin North-East."

The Irish Press reported a tribute by the Taoiseach, John A Costello, "He had great personal charm and was known for his old-world courtliness both at home and abroad.... We mourn in the passing of Alfie Byrne the loss of an honoured and distinguished Irishman whose place in the hearts of his fellow countrymen was unique and who gave a lifetime of unselfish devotion to their service." The members of the Dail stood and observed a short silence as a mark of respect.

A telegram was sent to his widow from the Mayor of New York, Robert F. Wagner, Jr., expressing deepest sympathy, and stating "that Ald. Byrne had attained high office of Lord Mayor many times, but he never lost contact with the poor and the underprivileged, whose champion he was".

Legacy

The press called him the "Shaking Hand of Dublin", Alfred the Great, and The Lord Mayor of Ireland. But most people knew him simply as Alfie. One of the most popular Dublin-born politicians of the 20th Century, he did not write a memoir.

The by-election caused by his death, was won by his son Patrick Byrne. Two other sons Alfred P. Byrne and Thomas Byrne were also TDs for various Dublin constituencies.

Alfie Byrne Road in Clontarf is named after him. In 2015 a quantity of personal and professional correspondence and documentation, the Alfie Byrne Collection, went on display in The Little Museum of Dublin.