Condon, Thomas Joseph (1850–1943), politician, was son of Jeremiah Condon, a Clonmel victualler. In adolescence he joined the IRB and participated in the committee that organised the election of O'Donovan Rossa (qv) as MP for Co. Tipperary in 1869. For the next decade he worked in his father's business. From 1879, he was active in the land war and was imprisoned several times. In 1885 he won the new Tipperary East constituency for the National League, and held it until 1918. He voted for all three home rule bills. In 1886 he signed the Plan of Campaign and was prosecuted unsuccessfully. On Clonmel corporation, he was mayor seven times (1889–92, 1899–1902, 1915–16). He founded and published the Clonmel Nationalist to make propaganda. In 1890 he was the only known ex-Fenian MP to oppose C. S. Parnell (qv), but was one of a group who travelled to Boulogne in a fruitless attempt to heal the breach. In 1895 he was one of his party's election committee.
Once close to William O'Brien (qv), Condon moved away, particularly after the 1903 land act had stimulated O'Brien's conciliationism. Probably, he could not have remained a Tipperary MP otherwise. Instead, he continued land agitation. He justified supporting Britain in the first world war, claiming, with his party, that full Irish freedom was achieved. After the Easter rising he lost credibility and in 1918, facing his first general election opponent since 1892, was defeated in Tipperary East by the charismatic Sinn Féin prisoner, Pierce McCann (1882–1920).
In 1920 Condon left local politics, moving first to Bray, Co. Wicklow, and then to Dún Laoghaire. In 1926 he helped Capt. William Redmond (qv) to establish his National League, but refused to be a candidate. The last surviving Irish MP to have voted for the first home rule bill, he died on 4 July 1943 and was buried in Deans Grange cemetery. He married (1875) Alicia (‘Queenie’) McGrath. His wife and a daughter survived him; his son had predeceased him.
Condon, known as ‘the Tipperary dragoon’ from his Plan of Campaign days, was a big man with impressive moustaches. Staunch rather than brilliant, he could argue persuasively. His career follows the trajectory of the home rule bourgeoisie: from rebellion through agitation to respectability, near-triumph, and, finally, supersession.