James C. Tunney, a Fianna Fáil politician, dies in Dublin on January 16, 2002.

Tunney is born on December 25, 1924, in Finglas, Dublin, the fourth child among three sons and five daughters of James Tunney, a farmer and Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) and senator, and M. Ellen Tunney (née Grimes), who both come from outside Westport, County Mayo. He is educated at St. Vincent’s C.B.S. in Glasnevin.

Tunney works in the Department of Agriculture from 1943 to 1955 and it is during this period that he studies part-time at University College Dublin (UCD), where he takes a BA in drama, English, and Irish before studying for a postgraduate qualification in Irish. From 1955 to 1962 he teaches drama at Vocational Education Committees (VEC) in Lucan, Balbriggan, and Garretstown, before being appointed headmaster of Blanchardstown VEC in 1962.

Tunney also plays at senior level for the Dublin county football team. He is on the winning side for Dublin in the 1948 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship.

A snappy dresser who earns the nickname “the yellow rose of Finglas,” Tunney is sometimes seen as pompous, a perception possibly attributable to his acting background, which once leads to an audition at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre.

In 1963 Tunney joins Fianna Fáil, and stands for the party at the  1965 Irish general election but is not elected. He is elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Dublin North-West constituency at the 1969 Irish general election. He serves continuously in the Dáil until losing his seat at the 1992 Irish general election, having been a TD for Dublin Finglas from 1977 to 1981 when Dublin constituencies are reconfigured as 3-seaters, before being returned for Dublin North-West in 1981.

During this period Tunney serves as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (after 1978, Minister of State at the Department of Education) in three governments. He serves as Leas-Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1981 to 1982, and from 1987 to 1993. He is also chair of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party for ten years. He is a member of Dublin City Council, and serves as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1984 to 1985.

Following Tunney’s death, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern describes him as “a parliamentarian and a gentleman who was passionately committed to serving his country.” Ahern adds, “he was not only a man of substance but one of style. From the flower that was always in his buttonhole to the elegance of his language in both Irish and English he had a commanding and stylish presence.”

Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan says Tunney had gained “the widespread affection and respect of colleagues of all political parties.”

Leader of the Labour Party Ruairi Quinn describes Tunney as a “thoughtful and courteous colleague” who carried out his duties with “fairness but also with wit and style.”