elected in a geographical constituency outside Ulster. Easter Rising, War of Independence & Civil War On 25 April 1916, during the Easter Rising, Captain John Bowen-Colthurst, an officer of the 3rd battalion Royal Irish Rifles, went on a raiding party in Rathmines holding Francis Sheehy-Skeffington as hostage. At Rathmines Road, he shot dead 19-year-old James Joseph Coade of 28 Mountpleasant Avenue. Coade had been attending a Sodality meeting at the nearby Catholic Church of Our Lady of Refuge. Sheehy-Skeffington was later shot dead in Portobello Barracks. Rathmines Church was used as a weapons store during the War of Independence. On 26 January 1920, a fire started at the electrical switchboard in the vestry. There were reports of several members of 'A' Company of the IRA Dublin Brigade entering the church during the fire to retrieve the weapons. The fire caused £30-35,000 worth of damage and completely destroyed the dome. During the Irish Civil War on 20 December 1922 Séamus Dwyer, a pro-treaty Sinn Féin politician, was shot dead in his shop at 5 Rathmines Terrace and on 24 March 1923 Thomas O'Leary, a member of the anti-Treaty IRA, was shot dead outside Tranquilla Convent (now Tranquilla Park). On 28 January 1928, IRA assassin Timothy Coughlin was himself shot dead on the Dartry Road. Rathmines Township The Rathmines Township was created by an Act of Parliament in 1847. The area was later renamed Rathmines and Rathgar and expanded to take in the areas of Rathgar, Ranelagh, Sallymount and Milltown. The township was initially responsible only for sanitation, but its powers were extended over time to cover most functions of local government. It became an urban district under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, but was still usually called a "township". Initially, the council was made up of local businessmen and other eminent figures; the franchise was extended in 1899 and the membership changed accordingly. The former Town Hall is still one of Rathmines's most prominent buildings with its clock tower (because the clock is famously inaccurate and has four large apparently unsynchronised clock faces (i.e., they sometimes show different times), it is known locally as the "Four Faced Liar".), although apparently, this nickname has been applied to other four-faced clock towers with unsynchronised clocks, such as Cork’s Shandon Tower, another one in Barnstable, England and in Boston's Custom House Tower. It was designed by Sir Thomas Drew and completed in 1899.