Patrick Little

Patrick John "P. J." Little (17 June 1884 – 16 May 1963) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. A founder-member of the party, he served in a number of cabinet positions, most notably as the country's longest-serving Minister for Posts and Telegraphs.

Early life

Born in Dundrum, County Dublin, Little was the son of Philip Francis Little and Mary Jane Holdright. Both his parents were Canadian natives, while his father had served as the first Premier of Newfoundland before settling in Ireland. Here he became involved in the Irish Home Rule Movement.

Little was educated at Clongowes Wood College, before later attending University College Dublin. Here he studied law and qualified as a solicitor in 1914.

Revolutionary years

Little was engaged in the independence struggle from an early stage. Following the Easter Rising in 1916, he formed, together with Stephen O'Mara, the Irish Nation League, who while being opposed to the Irish Parliamentary Party and supportive of abstentionism, were wary of the militarism of the Irish Volunteers. In 1918 the Volunteers, the Irish Nation League, and Count Plunkett's followers, the Liberty Clubs agreed to merge under the Sinn Féin banner with Éamon de Valera as President to fight the 1918 general election on an abstentionist platform.