[3] In June 1927, he was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD for Mayo South and became parliamentary secretary to acting Minister for Justice W. T. Cosgrave.

[2] His appointment as a minister after only a few months in parliament caused a surprise, and as the least experienced cabinet member, he often became the focus of opposition criticism and struggled with parliamentary duties.

[5] When the Four Courts, which had been badly damaged during the Irish Civil War, reopened in 1931, he firmly vetoed the proposal by the Chief Justice of Ireland Hugh Kennedy to hold a formal ceremony to mark the occasion, on the ground that it would virtually amount to an invitation to extremists to attack the building again.

[6] Following the merger of Cumann na nGaedheal with the National Centre Party and the Army Comrades Association (better known as the Blueshirts) to form Fine Gael in September 1933, he lost his front bench seat.

[3] After losing in the 1944 general election, he declined a nomination to Seanad Éireann by the bar council and chose to retire from politics to focus on his legal career and spent his remaining years farming at Clogher which he inherited from his mother.