Editing Seán MacEntee (section)

==Rebellion years==
An attempt to develop his career as a consulting engineer in [[Belfast]] was interrupted by the [[Irish War of Independence|War of Independence]] in 1919. MacEntee served as Vice-Commandant of the Belfast Brigade of the [[Irish Republican Army]]. He was also a member of the Volunteer Executive, ''a sort of Cabinet and Directory for the Minister for Defence and the HQ Staff''<ref>Kevin B Nolan, 'Dail Eireann and the Army:  Unity and Division 1919–21, in Williams (ed.), "Irish Struggle", p.271, cited in Townshend, p.87.</ref> But MacEntee remained one of the few Sinn Féiners from the north.<ref>Others were Eoin Macneill and Ernest Blythe. William Forbes Patterson, a Canadian protestant convert to Sein Finn was commissioned by Dublin to investigate. He found that Republicans faced a pogrom in [[Ulster]]. Townshend, "The Republic", pp.172–3.</ref> On 6 August 1920, MacEntee presented 'a Memorial' lecture to the Dáil from the Belfast Corporation. He told the Dáil it was the ''only custodian of public order'', and that a Nationalist pogrom was taking place, he advised them ''to fight Belfast''.<ref>Dáil Debates, 6 Aug 1920, as cited by Townshend, p.176.</ref> The Dáil government's policy was dubbed<ref>Bureau of Military History (Ireland) WS 1096 ( J J Murray), citing in Townshend, p.376-7.</ref>''Hibernia Irredenta'' or 'Greening Ireland'. Sean MacEntee was asked to resign his South Monaghan seat, after voting against a bunting celebration in Lurgan to mark the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.{{Citation needed|date=June 2016}}

===Path to civil war===
From April 1921, when MacEntee was transferred to [[Dublin]] to direct a special anti-partition campaign in connection with the May general election. It remained Collins's policy, he declared, that the largely Protestant shipyard workers of Belfast were being directed by the British, urging all Irishmen to rejoin the Republic.<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat, "Michael Collins", p.357, cited by Townshend, p.378.</ref> Correspondingly the Ulster Unionist Council rejected the call for a review of the boundary commission decision made on Northern Ireland. But when Ulstermen chose [[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|James Craig]] as Premier, Collins denounced democracy in the north as a sham.<ref>Collins and Craig had a meeting at the Colonial Office, London, on 21 January 1922.</ref> It was on the partition of Ireland issue that MacEntee voted against the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] of 1921.<ref>[http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.T.192112220002.html Dáil Éireann – Volume 3 – 22 December 1921, Debate on Treaty] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607134016/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.T.192112220002.html |date=7 June 2011 }}</ref> During the subsequent [[Irish Civil War|Civil War]] MacEntee commanded the IRA unit in Marlboro Street Post Office in Dublin. He later fought with [[Cathal Brugha]] in the Hamman Hotel and was subsequently interned in [[Kilmainham]] and [[Gormanston Camp|Gormanstown]] until December 1923.

===Politician in the Free State===
After his release from prison, MacEntee devoted himself more fully to his engineering practice, although he unsuccessfully contested [[Dublin County (Dáil constituency)|Dublin County by-election of 1924]]. He became a founder-member of [[Fianna Fáil]] in 1926 and was eventually elected a [[Teachta Dála|TD]] for Dublin County at the [[June 1927 Irish general election|1927 general election]].<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1232|title=Seán MacEntee|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=13 February 2012|archive-date=12 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120412053507/http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1232|url-status=live}}</ref>

MacEntee founded the Association of Patent Agents in 1929, having gained his interest in Patents when he worked as an assistant engineer in Dundalk Urban District Council.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aptma.ie/history.htm|title=Association of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys – APTMA Ireland|website=www.aptma.ie|access-date=13 February 2012|archive-date=12 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512025033/http://www.aptma.ie/history.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> On MacEntee's appointment as Minister for Finance in 1932, his colleague, Francis Litton who was acting as Secretary of the Association, circulated the members with a notice to the effect that the Association was "suspended" until MacEntee could return as he now had to devote his energies to the affairs of the State. However, the other members decided to carry on. MacEntee must have valued his status as a Patent Agent since he maintained his name on the Register for over 30 years while he held Ministerial rank in the Irish Government, although he is not thought to have taken any active part in the patent business, which was carried on by his business partners.