Rice, Vincent (1875–1955), barrister and politician, was born 21 April 1875, second son of Michael Rice of Dundalk, Co. Louth, and his wife Anna Gormley. Having graduated BA (RUI), he entered King's Inns in 1900 and was called to the bar in 1904; he later became a king's counsel (1924). In February 1916 he supported the Healyite independent candidate Bernard Hamill in the North Louth by-election against the official Irish party nominee. He was elected National League TD for Dublin South in the June 1927 general election but, having refused to sign the party pledge, acted independently of his colleagues; after resigning from the National League he denounced its support for an alliance with the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil to oust the government of W. T. Cosgrave (qv). Rice's vote was decisive in sustaining Cumann na nGaedheal in power, and he also influenced the decision of John Jinks (qv) to abstain. He was an unsuccessful Cumann na nGaedheal candidate for the same constituency in the September 1927 election but won a by-election in Dublin North (caused by the disqualification of James Larkin (qv)) on 3 April 1928. He subsequently served as chairman of the housing conference and of the dáil commission for relief of the unemployed (both 1928). Rice was defeated in the 1932 general election but won back his Dublin North seat for Cumann na nGaedheal in 1933. After the constituency boundaries were redrawn he was an unsuccessful Fine Gael candidate for Dublin North-West in the 1937 general election. In 1943 he unsuccessfully contested Dublin South as a pro-business independent and advocate of an all-party national government. He was afterwards a bencher and treasurer of King's Inns. He died in 1955.
Sources
Walker; Kenneth Ferguson, King's Inns barristers 1868–2004 (2005); http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist