seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: 29th Dáil Éireann


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Death of Séamus Pattison, Labour Party Politician

Séamus Pattison, Irish Labour Party politician, dies at his home in Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, on February 4, 2018. He serves as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency (1961-2007), Minister of State for Social Welfare (1983-87), Father of the Dáil (1995-2007), Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann (1997-2002) and Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann (2002-07). He is also a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Leinster constituency (1981-83).

Pattison is born in Kilkenny on April 19, 1936. His father is Labour Party TD James Pattison, who represents Carlow–Kilkenny from 1933 to 1957. After his education at University College Cork, he becomes a full-time trade union official, serving with the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU).

Pattison unsuccessfully contests the Carlow–Kilkenny by-election for Labour in June 1960 but is elected at the 1961 Irish general election to the 17th Dáil and holds the seat at eleven further general elections.

Pattison serves as Mayor of Kilkenny on three occasions: 1967, 1976 and 1992. He becomes an MEP for Leinster in 1981, to replace Liam Kavanagh who becomes Minister for Labour following the 1981 Irish general election. He resigns as an MEP in 1983, following his appointment as Minister of State at the Department of Social Welfare, a position in which he serves until Labour leaves the government in January 1987.

Pattison is unanimously elected Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann on June 26, 1997, serving for the 28th Dáil. When the 29th Dáil assembles following the 2002 Irish general election he is succeeded by Rory O’Hanlon but is appointed as Leas-Cheann Comhairle (deputy chairperson) for the 29th Dáil.

Pattison is also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

In September 2005, Pattison announces he will retire at the 2007 Irish general election, and his nephew Eoin Pattison unsuccessfully seeks the nomination. Labour county councillor Michael O’Brien is selected in February 2006 to contest the seat but is unsuccessful in the 2007 Irish general election.

When Pattison retires from politics at the 2007 election, he has served in Dáil Éireann for 45 years and 7 months, making him the fifth-longest serving TD ever, and the longest-ever-serving Labour Party TD. He is the longest-serving sitting TD from 1995 to 2007 and has the informal title of Father of the Dáil.

Pattison dies at the age of 81 from Parkinson’s disease at his home in Kilkenny on February 4, 2018.


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Founding of the Progressive Democrats

progressive-democratsProgressive Democrats is founded on December 21, 1985 by Desmond O’Malley, Mary Harney, and politicians who had split from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The party is a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR). Its youth wing is the Young Progressive Democrats.

The Progressive Democrats take liberal positions on divorce, contraception, and other social issues. The party also supports economic liberalisation, advocating measures such as lower taxation, fiscal conservatism, privatisation, and welfare reform. It enjoys an impressive début at the 1987 general election, winning 14 seats in Dáil Éireann and capturing almost 12 per cent of the popular vote to temporarily surpass the Labour Party as Ireland’s third-largest political party.

Although the Progressive Democrats never again win more than 10 seats in the Dáil, they form coalition governments with Fianna Fáil during the 26th Dáil (1989–92), the 28th Dáil (1997–2002), the 29th Dáil (2002–07) and the 30th Dáil (2007–09). These successive years as the government’s junior coalition partner gives the party an influence on Irish politics and economics disproportionate to its small size. In particular, the party has been credited with shaping the low-tax, pro-business environment that contributes to Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economic boom during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as blame for contributing to the subsequent Irish financial and economic crisis.

On November 8, 2008 the party begins the process of disbanding and is formally dissolved on November 20, 2009. The two Progressive Democrat politicians elected to the 30th Dáil, Mary Harney and Noel Grealish, continue to support the government as independent Teachta Dálas (TD), and Mary Harney also continues as Minister for Health and Children.