Tighe, Richard (1678–1736), MP and privy councillor, was born in Dublin, only son of William Tighe (d. 1679) and his wife Anne, eldest daughter of Sir Christopher Lovett. His father died shortly after his birth; his mother later married Thomas Coote, judge of the king's bench. Educated at the school of a Mr Davis, he entered TCD 21 March 1693, then aged 15, and graduated BA (1696).
He travelled to Italy in 1700, visiting Padua before spending periods in Rome, Florence, and Venice, and remained in Italy until 1707. Deciding on a political career, he was returned as MP for Belturbet, Co. Cavan, in 1703 despite being absent in Italy on his grand tour. After his return to Ireland, he sat on three government committees (1707–9) and voted against the money bill of 1709. Declaring himself in favour of the whigs, he was in the opposition from 1711 and, realising that he would not be returned for Belturbet in the election of 1713, did not contest the seat. In 1715 he was returned as MP for Newtown, Co. Down, and held this seat until 1727. He was elected high sheriff of Co. Dublin (1716) and made a freeman of Kilkenny (1718). On 19 August 1718 he was appointed to the privy council and later introduced a bill into parliament relating to the conditions of curates in the Church of Ireland (1719). He also introduced bills on the regulation of the parish watch (1721), the upkeep of the roads, and the finances of local government (1723). At the same time he was violently opposed to the scheme to establish a national bank, and was a teller against the bill in 1721. In 1723 he supported the government over the contentious Westmeath by-election petition but also subscribed to the declaration against Wood's halfpence. He continued to serve on numerous government committees for the rest of his career.
In 1725 he attended a service in Limerick where Thomas Sheridan (qv) preached on the anniversary of the accession of George I. Sheridan chose the text ‘Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof’ and Tighe viewed the sermon as seditious, reporting it to the viceroy, Lord Carteret (qv). Sheridan was duly dismissed as a chaplain to Dublin Castle and later castigated Tighe in both his private and public writings. Jonathan Swift (qv), who had never liked Tighe anyway, was even more cutting in his criticisms of his actions. Tighe was small in stature, and Swift dismissed him as being ‘a man of no large dimensions of body or mind’ (Ball, Swift's verse, 203). In public Swift either ignored him completely or pretended to mistake him for someone else while referring to his conduct, and the state of his marriage, in his letters to Stella (Esther Johnson (qv)). In 1728 Swift published a satirical poem in the Intelligencer entitled ‘Mad Mullinix and Timothy’, the character of Timothy referring to Tighe. It was the first of a series of satires aimed at Tighe, which included ‘Tim and the fables’, ‘Tom Mullinex and Dick’, ‘Dick, a maggot’, ‘Dick's variety’, and ‘Clad all in brown’. This last satire, depicting Tighe coated in filth, stated: ‘Thou now one heap of foulness art, all outward and within is foul; condensed filth in e'ry part, thy body's cloathed like thy soul’ (Williams, Poems of Jonathan Swift, 787).
In 1727 Tighe was returned as MP for Augher, Co. Tyrone; he held this seat until his death. Throughout his political career, he was known for his violent anti-catholicism, reportedly beginning several speeches in the commons with ‘Mr Speaker, a papist I hate, a papist I detest!’ (Jeffares, 330). Elected as a freeman of the guild of merchant tailors (1729), he was appointed a commissioner of oyer and terminer (1732) and later keeper of the records (1734). He was also a founding member of the Dublin Society (1731), a governor of the workhouse (1732–6), and a trustee and governor of Dr Steevens’ Hospital (1733–6). In 1733 he laid the foundation stone for the New Theatre in Dublin, and George Farquhar (qv) dedicated ‘The inconstant’ to him. His Dublin residence was on Dawson St. and he had an estate in Co. Carlow. He died 27 July 1736.
He married (1708) Barbara, daughter and coheir of Christian Bor of Co. Wexford. They had two daughters and one son, William Tighe (1710–66), who was MP for Clonmines, Co. Wexford (1734–60) and Wicklow (1761–6). The marriage was not happy and, if Swift is to be believed, involved frequent bouts of domestic violence. Barbara Tighe survived her husband by fourteen years.