J. J. O'Shee (MP)

James John O'Shee (3 November 1866 – 1 January 1946) usually known as J. J. O'Shee, was an Irish nationalist politician, solicitor, labour activist and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland representing the constituency of West Waterford from 1895 until 1918. Elected as an Anti-Parnellite member of the Irish Parliamentary Party he was one of the more socially radical members of the party. He co-founded and was secretary from 1894 of the Irish Land and Labour Association

O'Shee was born as John James Shee on 3 November 1866 at Newtown, near Carrick-on-Suir Co. Tipperary as the youngest of four sons of John Shee, a farmer, and his wife Mary (née Britton). He had five sisters all of whom became nuns. He attended the local national school, completing his education at Rockwell College and University College Dublin. He first served as a law apprentice with James O'Sullivan in Carraig-on-Suir before qualify as a solicitor in 1890. He subsequently opened his own practice in the town, establishing a branch office later in Clonmel. Shee changed his name in 1900 to O'Shee.

While still an apprentice he became politically active and won a considerable reputation as a public speaker and man of action. In 1894 in alliance with D. D. Sheehan he co-founded the Irish Land and Labour Association (ILLA), chaired by Sheehan with O'Shee as secretary. They campaigned for radical changes in land and labour laws, in particular the granting of smallholdings to rural labourers. The Irish Party leaders suspected this independent organisation from the beginning. A year later in 1895 O’Shee was elected as an anti-Parnellite to represent the constituency of West Waterford at Westminster, which seat he held until 1918.

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