In 1918 Daniel Desmond Sheehan stood as Labour’s first candidate here, losing to the Coalition Liberal Sir William Pearce. Sheehan had been MP for Mid Cork (1901-18), agitating for better housing for rural labourers. The houses built in Cork as a result were known as “Sheehan’s cottages”.
He served with the Royal Munster Fusiliers in the First World War. Two of his sons were killed serving in the RFC/RAF and a daughter was disabled on the Western Front.
Clement Attlee defeated Pearce in 1922 and then, the following year, he beat the Tory Thomas Miller-Jones. In 1937, Miller-Jones was knighted for charitable and political services in the East End.
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