Edward Cooney

Edward Cooney (1867–1960) was an Irish evangelist from the 1890s to the 1950s. He became one of the early leaders of a church founded by William Irvine. Because of his colorful style and public preaching, his name came to be associated with the entire movement. Later, after Irvine's ouster, Cooney began to criticize the development of hierarchy within the Two by Twos, its taking of a name for official purposes, and abandonment of other of its original tenets. He and those who agreed with him were later expelled, and formed a looser group which is referred to as the Cooneyites. He continued as an itinerant evangelist until his death in 1960.