John Sheehan may refer to:
John Sheehan (1812–1882) was an Irish journalist, writer and barrister.
Sheehan was the son of an hotel-keeper at Celbridge, County Kildare, where he was born. He was sent to the Jesuit college at Clongoweswood, where Francis Sylvester Mahony was his tutor for a time. About 1829 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, but did not graduate.
In 1830 Sheehan joined the Comet Club of young Irishmen, with Samuel Lover, Joseph Stirling Coyne, Robert Knox who became editor of The Morning Post, and Maurice O'Connell. The club issued pamphlets attacking the tithe system; the first, The Parson's Horn Book, which appeared in two parts with etchings by Lover, was popular. The club then issued The Comet, a satirical weekly paper opposing gthe Church of Ireland, with the first number appearing on 1 May 1831. Sheehan was appointed sub-editor. In a few weeks it had reached a circulation of several thousand copies, and until its closure at the end of 1833 was influential.
John Sheehan (5 July 1844 – 12 June 1885) was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. He was the first New Zealand-born Member of Parliament elected by a general electorate (rather than a Māori electorate) and he was the first New Zealand-born person to hold cabinet rank.
Sheehan was born in Auckland in 1844. He was educated at St Peter's School under the guidance of his teacher, Richard O'Sullivan and where he knew another later Cabinet Minister, Joseph Tole.
He was the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Māori Affairs from 1877 to 1879. He represented several North Island electorates: Rodney from 1872 to 1879, then Thames from 1879 to 1884, when he was defeated (for Napier by John Davies Ormond). He then represented Tauranga from a by-election on 22 May 1885 until he died shortly after on 12 June.