From 1892 to 1918 he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Dublin St Patrick's, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

He ran one of the biggest butchers' businesses in Dublin and was president of the National Meat Traders' Federation.

J. J. Horgan described him in 1905 as "a venerable figure with a wide-brimmed hat and picturesque appearance reminiscent of Buffalo Bill".

In the 1892 general election, standing for the Parnellite Irish National League, he took the St Patrick's seat in the Parnellite stronghold of Dublin from the sitting anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation MP William Martin Murphy by the wide margin of 3,991 votes to 1,110.

He presented himself as a labour representative, though he denounced socialism; he attended early Irish trade union congresses as representative of the "Knights of the Plough" a farm laborers' body founded by Benjamin Pelin at Narraghmore, County Kildare in June 1892.