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Birth of Desmond “Des” O’Malley, Irish Politician

Desmond Joseph “Des” O’Malley, Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats politician, is born on February 2, 1939, in Limerick, County Limerick.

O’Malley is born into a storied Limerick political family. His maternal grandfather, Denis O’Donovan, is killed during the Irish War of Independence by the Black and Tans, two of his uncles and his father hold the office of Mayor of Limerick, and his uncle Donogh O’Malley is a Minister for Education. He is educated at the Jesuit Crescent College and at University College Dublin (UCD), from which he graduates with a degree in law in 1962.

In 1968, O’Malley enters politics upon the sudden death of his uncle Donogh who, at that the time, is the sitting Minister for Education. He is chosen after Donogh’s widow, Hilda, still in shock at the sudden death of her husband, turns down the opportunity to contest the by-election necessitated by his death.

O’Malley is subsequently elected as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Limerick East constituency in the by-election. Perhaps the first sign of the defiance that would define his career materialises during the 1969 Irish general election when Hilda asks her nephew to step aside and allow her to contest in the Limerick East constituency as the main Fianna Fáil candidate. He refuses and places third in the four-seat constituency, with his aunt, running as an independent, coming in fifth.

Following the general election, O’Malley is appointed Parliamentary Secretary to both Minister for Defence Jim Gibbons and Taoiseach Jack Lynch and serves as Government Chief Whip. In his role as a confidante of Lynch, the political lines within Fianna Fáil that put him on a collision course of over twenty years with Charles Haughey, are drawn. He plays a central role in the Arms Crisis prosecutions of Haughey and Neil Blaney in 1970. After their acquittals, the stage is set within Fianna Fáil for a long-term power struggle that eventually results in O’Malley’s expulsion from the party in 1984.

In the meantime, O’Malley’s next position within Lynch’s government comes when he is made Minister for Justice after Mícheál Ó Móráin is forced to resign due to ill-health. One of the most significant aspects of his legacy transpires during his tenure as Minister for Justice from 1970 to 1973. In response to the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland, he tries and fails to introduce internment without trial for republicans within the State. He is, however, successful in reintroducing the Offences Against the State Act, which enables convictions for Irish Republican Amy (IRA) membership on the word of a Garda Superintendent, and the Special Criminal Court, a non-jury court presided over by three judges which tries cases of terrorism and serious organised crime.

When Lynch resigns the Fianna Fáil leadership following electoral defeat in 1979, O’Malley and Martin O’Donoghue manage the leadership campaign of George Colley, who subsequently loses to Haughey. Following Haughey’s ascent to leadership, O’Malley retains the industry and commerce ministerial portfolio he had been appointed to following the 1977 Irish general election.

In 1982, after Fianna Fáil loses its majority but stays in government by virtue of a confidence and supply agreement with Sinn Féin – The Workers Party and two independents, O’Malley is appointed Minister for Trade, Commerce and Tourism, but with the death of Colley and the loss of O’Donoghue’s seat, he becomes increasingly isolated within Fianna Fáil.

After the party whip is removed from him in 1984, amidst inter-party wrangling over the New Ireland Forum, O’Malley is expelled from the party the following year, the final straw being his famous “I stand by the Republic” speech in which he announces his intention to abstain on a vote regarding the liberalisation of the sales of contraceptives, which Fianna Fáil opposes.

O’Malley goes on to establish the Progressive Democrats, joined by Mary Harney (who had also been expelled by Fianna Fáil), and later by Fianna Fáil TDs Bobby Molloy and Pearse Wyse, as well as Fine Gael TD Michael Keating. In the 1987 Irish general election, the Progressive Democrats win fourteen seats, making them the third biggest party in the Dáil. Among those elected are O’Malley, his cousin Patrick O’Malley, Anne Colley, daughter of George Colley, Martin Gibbons, son of Jim Gibbons, Michael McDowell and Martin Cullen.

O’Malley’s animus for Haughey does not stop him from entering coalition with Fianna Fáil after the 1989 Irish general election, with him once again appointed Minister for Industry and Commerce. While in government, he finally witnesses the downfall of Haughey in 1992, when he is forced to resign over the emergence of new evidence concerning his tapping of journalists’ phones in the 1980s. The coalition with Fianna Fáil does not last long under new Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, with the Government collapsing after Reynolds accuses O’Malley of dishonesty during the Beef Tribunal.

O’Malley retires as leader of the Progressive Democrats in 1993, and the party moves into opposition, only to re-enter government with Fianna Fáil in 1997, where it remains upon O’Malley’s retirement from politics in 2002.

While the Progressive Democrats no longer exist, they are generally credited with the breaking up of the Fianna Fáil versus Fine Gael dichotomy of Irish politics that had dominated since the founding of the Free State. Since 1922, Irish governments have tended to be either single-party Fianna Fáil cabinets, be they minority or majority, or Fine Gael-led coalitions, typically involving the Labour Party. A Fine Gael-Labour coalition is in power at the time of the founding of the Progressive Democrats, and a single-party government or clear majority has not been won in Ireland since.

O’Malley dies in Dublin on July 21, 2021, at the age of 82, having been in poor health for some time. He is predeceased by his wife, Pat, and survived by their six children, four daughters including the former TD Fiona O’Malley, and two sons.

Perhaps O’Malley’s greatest legacy is the political reality of Ireland today: the low-tax, pro-business economic policies of the Progressive Democrats have been the dominant ideology in the State since the 1990s. Sinn Féin, the party most affected by his measures as Minister for Justice, no longer vote against the retention of the Offences Against the State Act and Special Criminal Court.

(From: “Desmond O’Malley: 1939-2021,” eolas Magazine, http://www.eolasmagazine.ie, August 2021)


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Death of Michael Dwyer, Journalist & Film Critic

Michael Dwyer, journalist and film critic who writes for The Irish Times for more than 20 years, dies following a lengthy illness on January 1, 2010. He previously fills this role for the Sunday Tribune, The Sunday Press and the magazine In Dublin.

Born on May 2, 1951, Dwyer is originally from Saint John’s Park in Tralee, County Kerry. His mother, Mary, outlives him. He has two sisters, Anne and Maria. As a young man in the early 1970s he takes part in the Tralee Film Society, for which he provides notes to The Kerryman. At this time he is employed by the County Library in Tralee. He begins working for In Dublin followed by the Sunday Tribune and The Sunday Press.

Dwyer first travels to the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 and attends every one until 2009, months before his death. In 1985, he co-founds the Dublin Film Festival and directs it until the mid-1990s. In 2002, he co-founds the Dublin International Film Festival, of which he is the chairman. In later life he serves on the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

In the 1990s, Dwyer presents the film show Freeze Frame for public service broadcaster RTÉ. The show results from a friendship he had formed with Alan Gilsenan and Martin Mahon of Yellow Asylum Films. He is also known for his appearances on the radio shows Morning Ireland and The Marian Finucane Show. The editor of The Irish Times, Geraldine Kennedy, speaking after Dwyer’s death, says he was an “enthusiastic advocate” of both national and international cinema and had once said he was “one of those lucky people in life who was able to pursue his interests and call them work.”

Dwyer becomes unwell following a trip to the Cannes Film Festival in May 2009. He takes a break from writing for The Irish Times, returning in December 2009 to contribute his first, and what is to be his last ever, piece in six months to weekly entertainment supplement The Ticket. The article is a review of cinema in 2009 and of the 2000s, and in his contribution he references the ill health which had haunted him for much of the previous year and which had prevented him from viewing any cinema releases between June and September.

Dwyer dies at the age of 58 on January 1, 2010. His partner of 24 years, Brian Jennings, survives him. Irish Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen says Dwyer was “the most singular, significant influence on cinema in Ireland for more than three decades.” President of the Labour Party Michael D. Higgins says his work was “incalculable […] he was an activist in promoting a knowledge and appreciation of film in all its forms.” Ireland’s former Director of Film Classification at the Irish Film Classification Office John Kelleher says it was “a huge loss for the world of Irish film.” There are tributes from Gabriel Byrne, Daniel Day-Lewis, Brendan Gleeson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Cillian Murphy and Jim Sheridan. The Irish Times publishes tribute pieces on his life.

A ceremony takes place at the Church of the Holy Name in Ranelagh where Dwyer lived. The event is attended by notable politicians, journalists, artists, actors, writers and musicians. RTÉ newsreader Aengus Mac Grianna, a colleague of Jennings, reads a tribute to Dwyer. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a very special tribute at the church service to his dear friend of over 20 years, calling for the Jameson International Dublin Film Festival to be renamed in Dwyer’s honour.

Dwyer is cremated after the funeral on January 5, 2010.