Thomas Sexton

Thomas Sexton (1848–1932) was an Irish journalist, financial expert, nationalist politician and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1880 to 1896, representing four different constituencies. He was High Sheriff of County Dublin in 1887 and Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1888 to 1890. Sexton was a high ranking member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, raised up by Charles Stewart Parnell himself. However, Sexton broke with Parnell and joined the Anti-Parnellites in 1891 following Parnell's marriage scandal. Sexton was disheartened by the subsequent infighting amongst the Anti-Parnellites and pulled back from politics. He thereafter became the chairman of the Freeman's Journal, one of the largest newspapers in Ireland.

Early life Sexton was born at Ballygannon, County Waterford, where he attended the local CBS school. Sexton was first elected MP for County Sligo in the 1880 general election, for South Sligo in the 1885 general election, then for Belfast West in the 1886 election and for North Kerry in the 1892 election. During his time as an MP, he was considered one of Parnell's principal lieutenants. During that reign, Sexton arranged a highly beneficial restructuring of the municipal debt.

He was hostile to the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 on financial grounds, and regarded by William O'Brien as one of the principal players involved in his subsequent marginalisations from the Irish Party. Sexton continued to be a leading ally of Dillon as chairman of the board of the Freeman's Journal from 1893 to 1911; however, his policy of cutting investments to maintain dividends led to the demise of the paper through William Martin Murphy's Irish Independent.

During Sexton's time as chairman of the Freeman's Journal, the paper began to suffer financially, struggling with competition from the National Press and from 1891 onwards, the pro-Parnall Irish Daily Independent. In the face of this competition, the Journal found it difficult to attract new investment and Sexton was unwilling to sell his shares in the paper for fear of losing control over it. In 1900 the Irish Daily Independent was purchased by William Martin Murphy and in 1905 transformed it into the Irish Independent, which sold at half the price of the Freeman's Journal and in a more popular format. The Freeman was unable to offer a response and began losing money. Sexton continued to try and hold on, but eventually the leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party stepped in and forced his resignation. The paper had to be subsidised by the party in the following years until it was shut down in 1918 following the Irish Parliamentary Party's catastrophic loss to Sinn Féin in the 1918 Irish general election.

Later life After retiring from the Freeman's Journal he became Chairman of Boland's Mill, and during World War I denounced wartime taxation and in 1918 endorsed Sinn Féin. At the end of his career he supported Fianna Fáil because it promised tariff protection for flour-milling.