 A brother of his paternal grandmother was Michael Reddy, Irish Parliamentary Party MP for Birr from 1900 to 1918.He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway South constituency at the 1958 by-election caused by the death of Patrick Beegan of Fianna Fáil, who was his uncle.He was re-elected at the 1961 and 1965 general elections for the Galway East constituency.