Office: | Senator |
Term Start: | 6 December 1928 |
Term End: | 23 March 1929 |
Office2: | Teachta Dála |
Term Start2: | August 1923 |
Term End2: | June 1927 |
Constituency2: | Mayo South |
Term Start3: | May 1921 |
Term End3: | August 1923 |
Constituency3: | Mayo South–Roscommon South |
Term Start4: | December 1918 |
Term End4: | May 1921 |
Constituency4: | Mayo South |
Birth Place: | Neale, County Mayo, Ireland |
Death Place: | Dublin, Ireland |
Nationality: | Irish |
Party: | Sinn Féin |
William Frederick Sears (1868 – 23 March 1929) was an Irish Sinn Féin and later Cumann na nGaedheal politician.[1] [2]
Sears was born in Neale, County Mayo in 1868. He was elected as a Sinn Féin MP for the Mayo South constituency at the 1918 general election.[3] 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 Sears did not attend as he was in prison.[4] He was elected unopposed as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South–Roscommon South constituency at the 1921 elections.
He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted for it. He was re-elected unopposed for the same constituency at the 1922 general election, this time as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin TD. He was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD for Mayo South constituency at the 1923 general election.[5] He lost his seat at the June 1927 general election but was elected to the Seanad in 1928. He died in office in 1929 and the by-election for his seat was won by Sir Nugent Everard.
In 1902 he founded the Enniscorthy Echo in co-operation with Sir Thomas Esmonde.[1]