He was born in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and was the son of Philip McShane, a coalminer, and his wife Bridget.
[3] In 1909 McShane became a schoolmaster, and subsequently moved to Walsall in the English Black Country, where he was the headmaster of the St Mary's the Mount Catholic School.
He succeeded in taking the seat, ousting the sitting Conservative MP William Preston and beating the former Liberal cabinet minister T J Macnamara into third place.
[5] McShane was only in parliament for two years, losing his seat to Joseph Leckie of the Liberals at the 1931 general election.
He was the first headmaster of the Joseph Leckie Secondary Modern School, named after his successor in parliament, which opened in 1939.