He was elected at the 1892 general election as MP for East Wicklow as a member of the Anti-Parnellite faction of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He became a Parnellite in 1895 and resigned the seat on 8 April 1895. At the resulting by-election 26 April 1895, he stood as a Parnellite candidate but was defeated in a closely fought three-way contest. At the general election in July 1895 he stood in North Meath, where he narrowly failed to unseat the sitting anti-Parnellite MP James Gibney.