William Bernard Hickie - Civil Engagement

Civil Engagement

He retired from the army in 1922, when the five Irish territorial battalions based in southern Ireland were disbanded under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. He had identified himself strongly with John Redmond’s Home Rule, and expressed that its scrapping was a disaster, was equally outspoken in condemning the activities of the Black and Tans. He was elected with a record vote as a member of the Irish Senate, the Seanad of the Irish Free State in 1925; he won the fifth highest number nationwide of first-preference votes of the 76 candidates but due to transfers was the first of 19 to be elected.

Hickie held his seat until the Seanad was dissolved in 1936 (replaced by Seanad Éireann in 1937), devoting himself tirelessly with heart and soul, sparing neither labour nor expense, to the cause and interest of the Irish ex-servicemen and their Old Comrade Associations, acting as President of the Area Council (Southern Ireland) of the British Legion (ex-servicemen’s charity organisation) during 1925 to 1948. Although charming, good-looking and popular with the women, he never married. He died on 3 November 1950 in Dublin and was buried in Terryglass, co. Tipperary.