Joseph Nolan (1846 – 14 September 1928) was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
[2] He later became manager of the Aquarium and Casino in New Brighton on the Wirral Peninsula near Liverpool, and this was his job at the time of his first election to Parliament for the new seat of North Louth in the Nationalist landslide of 1885.
At the general election of July 1895 he stood in the North Louth seat again, challenging the prominent Anti-Parnellite incumbent Timothy Michael Healy, but was again defeated, this time by 3 to 2.
He went on to write: '....and when Parnell was on the look-out for candidates to join his new and soon-to-be-powerful party his mind was directed to Nolan, who had a record of obscure but violent acts behind him....He was a very fine-looking fellow, 6 ft 2in or 3in high, very well proportioned, with a handsome and refined face....He could speak, but with such slowness as to make a speech from him almost an infliction....he was always in or about the House of Commons....Forced to make a living - for there was no salary for Members of Parliament in those days, and a very small allowance from the party funds - Nolan was always engaged in some enterprise which he was trying to push....At one time it was to purchase rum of Jamaica; at another he had some scheme for exploring and exploiting a large piece of land in Labrador.
His last recorded public appearance seems to have been at a service of thanksgiving for the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty held in Westminster Cathedral, London, on 8 December 1921, which was also attended by his former Irish Parliamentary Party colleagues T. P. O'Connor and Thomas Scanlan.