James Sproule Myles: Staunch unionist, Somme hero, and TD in Free State

Normally known as Sproule rather than James, Sproule is a Scottish surname which has died out in Scotland but survives throughout north-west Ulster.

Educated at Londonderry Academical Institution (which later merged with Foyle College), Sproule was a good student and a rugby and swimming enthusiast. In 1895 he played rugby for Ulster Schools in inter-provincial competitions and was a playing member of City of Derry XV from 1894 to 1899.

In 1899 Sproule was a member of the first ever Irish touring team in Canada. While playing, he broke his leg and he had to remain in Canada until December while the rest of the touring party returned home in November.

When Foyle Swimming Bath was opened in 1894, Sproule won the first school swimming championship. In 1895 he won the North-West Open Swimming Championship.

With his brother Robert he expanded the family business in Ballyshannon, into one of the major enterprises in the North-West with timber yards and a general hardware emporium.

His family had ships importing timber, slate, coal and other commodities to Ballyshannon and he was an expert harbour pilot, guiding ships safely to port. (He retained his membership of Ballyshannon Harbour Board and chair of the Board of Conservators to the very end of his life.)

Myles was a pioneer in many things.

At a personal level, in 1905 he became the owner of a six-horsepower De Dion, the first car registered in Ballyshannon, its number plate being IH 19.

At a community level, he is fondly remembered in Ballyshannon for introducing electricity to the town in 1908, a service shortly afterwards extended to Bundoran.

Myles was instrumental in the establishment of the Technical School in Ballyshannon in 1914 – the first in Co Donegal.

He also played a leading role in establishing the town’s first fire brigade and was active in the Red Cross.

Politically, Myles was a convinced unionist and in 1912 he became the vice-president of the newly formed Ballyshannon Unionist Club. He signed the Ulster Covenant in the Masonic Hall in Ballyshannon, along with 247 other men. (233 women signed the Declaration at the same venue.)

In the years before the Great War, he was the commander of the 1st Battalion of the Donegal Regiment of the UVF which was based in the south of the county.

During the Great War he served with both the 11th Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Donegal and Fermanagh Volunteers) and the Royal Engineers. An ancestor had served as a ‘Skin’ at Waterloo.

At the Battle of the Somme Major Myles was severely wounded and was awarded the Military Cross for ‘conspicuous gallantry in action’.

He was first elected to Donegal county council in 1920.

Over the course of 30 years, he reputedly never missed a council meeting and sat on virtually every one of its subordinate county committees.

He opposed partition but could only acquiesce in it and was among a group of prominent 40 Unionists kidnapped and held hostage by the IRA in February 1922.

In 1923 he sought election to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament. He topped the poll, polling 6,954 first-preference votes and was elected on the first count.

In his election address he supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the institutions of the newly-established Irish Free State.

Throughout his political career, his emphasis was on local rather than national issues. In his own words, he ‘reserved the right to act and vote in the best interests of the country and Co Donegal’.

He was re-elected on six subsequent occasions, both topping the poll and increasing his vote.

He represented the entire county between 1923 and 1937 but in 1937 the county was divided into two new constituencies: East and West.

This placed Myles at a serious disadvantage because he lived in the very south of the county whereas his electors were in the north-east of the county.

While he topped the poll in East Donegal in 1937, he lost the seat in 1943 to the Raphoe-based W A W (Willie) Sheldon and failed to regain the seat in the election of 1944. Geography was a major contributory factor to his defeat.

His age and possibly diminishing energy may also have been important. There is likely to have been a generational dimension.

Sheldon was born in 1907, making him 30 years younger than Myles. It is possible to surmise from the voting figures in both 1943 and 1944 that while Myles retained the esteem and affection of older electors he did not have the same prestige and appeal for younger voters.

Wartime petrol rationing may have been another consideration, making it difficult for Myles to maintain the close contact with his constituents which STV PR requires.

Although Myles scaled back his involvement in public life, he continued to take a keen interest in the welfare of ex-servicemen and was a former president of Ballyshannon and Londonderry branches of the British Legion. He was vice-chairman of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Regimental Association and regularly attended events in Omagh and reunion dinners in Belfast and Dublin.

A prominent Freemason, he joined the craft in 1904 and became a Past Sovereign of Prince Masons and a Past Provincial Senior Grand Warden of the Province of Derry and Donegal. It would appear that he never joined the Orange institution.

Proud of his association with Foyle College, he retained a close relationship with his alma mater, donating many books to the school library. He had been president of the Old Boys Association in 1932/33.

He died on February 13 1956 at Inis Samer, his home in Ballyshannon – a late 19th-century house of some distinction. He is buried in the grounds of St Anne’s Church in the town.