Liam de Róiste

Liam de Róiste (born William Roche; 15 June 1882 – 15 May 1959) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician, diarist and Gaelic scholar.

Early life He was born in Fountainstown, County Cork, the son of Edward Roche (originally from Tipperary) and Eliza Ahern, who were both primary school teachers.

At the age of 17, he began working in a Cork drapery store. Later, he assumed a teaching post at Skerry's College.

He was elected as a Sinn Féin MP for the Cork City 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 de Róiste was unable to attend.

De Róiste opposed the Belfast Boycott stating in a 1920 Dáil debate; "it would mean having to purchase English-made goods instead of Belfast-made articles. Economic penetration was the solution of the Ulster question.

In April 1921, while staying at a neighbour's house for fear of assassination, the family home was stormed by a party of Black and Tans. A personal friend and Catholic priest, James O'Callaghan, evidently mistaken for his host, was shot and killed while investigating the disturbance downstairs. The intruders left unopposed.

De Róiste was re-elected without contest in the 1921 elections for the Cork Borough constituency. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted in favour of it. He was re-elected again in the 1922 general election as a member of pro-Treaty Sinn Féin. In the "lead up" to the Irish Civil War, he tried, as part of a group, to reconcile the pro- and anti-Treaty sides, a move that alienated many of his supporters, which effectively ended his political career.

De Róiste was active in local politics in Cork, serving on Cork Corporation from 1920 to 1922. In 1929, he was one of three Cumann na Gael members of the reformed Cork Corporation, losing his seat in the early 1930s.

In 1936–1937, he was involved with the Irish Christian Front, which supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

In his private life he was Secretary and Director of the Irish International Trading Corporation, Cork, and an author. and is buried at St. Joseph's Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork.