[3] He was the son of RIC Sergeant John Bartley and Anne Costelloe, a grocer.
He served with the West Connemara Brigade flying column from early 1921 during the War of Independence, was promoted to vice-brigadier of the West Connemara Brigade of the Irish Republican Army in the Truce period, took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War, was involved in a number of attacks on National Army troops and was captured by the Free State Government in October 1922 and interned until June 1924.
[5] For almost twenty years Bartley remained as a backbench TD before his first government appointment as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture in 1951.
On returning to government in 1957, Bartley was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce.
Two years later Bartley became Minister for Defence, a post he held until his retirement from politics in 1965.