Sir Joseph Neale McKenna[1] (1819[2] – 15 August 1906) was an Irish banker and politician whose career extended from the elite home rule politics of the mid-nineteenth century to the fall of Charles Stewart Parnell, whom he supported in later years.
He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Youghal from 1865 to 1868 and for South Monaghan from 1885 to 1892, representing the Home Rule League and its successor the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1874 to 1885 in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
He was an early participant in the Home Rule movement, led by Isaac Butt, and played a leading role in forming Irish Nationalist thinking on the over-taxation of Ireland.
He entered Parliament as member for Youghal, Co. Cork, at the general election of 1865, defeating the incumbent Isaac Butt, the later Home Rule leader, by 122 to 30 votes, the electorate being a tiny 237.
McKenna had insufficient support to stand in the new East Cork constituency into which Youghal was absorbed, and moved to South Monaghan, where he defeated a Conservative by nearly five to one in 1885 and a Unionist by a similar margin in 1886.