McDonald is born into a middle-class family in south Dublin. Her father Patrick McDonald, a builder and surveyor, and her mother Joan, separate when she is nine years old, and she stays with her mother in Rathgar. She has three siblings, one older and two younger. Her great-uncle, James O’Connor, was a member of the Anti-Treaty IRA and was executed at the Curragh Camp during the Irish Civil War.
She works as a researcher for the Institute of European Affairs, a consultant for the Irish Productivity Centre, a human resources consultancy that is jointly operated by Ibec and Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), and a trainer in the Partnership Unit of the Educational and Training Services Trust.
McDonald starts her political career by first joining Fianna Fáil in 1998 but leaves the party after a year due to core policy differences, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland and social justice. She quickly realises that Sinn Féin is a more appropriate party for her Republican views after meeting Sinn Féin members through the Irish National Congress.
She first runs for office at the 2002 Irish general election when she unsuccessfully contests the Dublin West constituency for Sinn Féin, polling 8.02% of first preference votes.
In 2004, McDonald becomes Sinn Féin’s first Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in Ireland, when she is elected at the 2004 European Parliament election in Ireland for the Dublin constituency, receiving over 60,000 first preference votes. She serves until 2009 and is a prominent member of the Employment and Social Affairs committee and Civil Liberties committee.
McDonald contests the Dublin Central constituency again at the 2011 Irish general election, this time picking up 13.1% of first preference votes. She is successful in taking the last seat in the constituency. Following the election, she becomes Sinn Féin’s Spokesperson for Public Expenditure and Reform and is a member of the Public Accounts Committee from then until 2017.
After her re-election to the Dáil at the 2016 Irish general election, in which she tops the poll in Dublin Central, she becomes Sinn Féin’s All-Ireland Spokesperson for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, which she holds until being elected president of Sinn Féin in 2018.
At a Sinn Féin party conference on November 18, 2017, Gerry Adams is re-elected party leader but announces that he will ask party leadership to call for a special Ard Fheis to be held within three months to choose a new president, and that he will not stand for re-election as TD for the Louth constituency in the next election.
At the close of nominations to succeed Adams on January 20, 2018, McDonald is announced as the president-elect of Sinn Féin, as she is the sole nominee to enter the race. She is confirmed as president at a special Ard Fheis on February 10, 2018, in Dublin.
McDonald is nominated as Taoiseach on February 20, 2020, but is defeated 45 to 84. On June 26, 2020, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party form a coalition government, leaving Sinn Féin as the largest opposition party, and McDonald as Leader of the Opposition. She dismisses the coalition agreement as a “marriage of convenience,” and accuses Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of conspiring to exclude Sinn Féin from government.
At the 2024 Irish general election, McDonald is re-elected to the Dáil topping the poll in Dublin Central with Sinn Féin increasing their seat share by two seats, remaining the second largest party by representation in the Dáil and attaining 19% of the first preference votes, a fall of 5.5% from 2020 and fall behind Fianna Fáil by 2.9% and Fine Gael by 1.8%.
McDonald is again nominated as Taoiseach on December 18, 2024, but is defeated 44 to 110.
McDonald’s husband, Martin Lanigan, works as a gas control superintendent for the emergency dispatch division of Gas Networks Ireland, a state infrastructure provider. They have two children and live in Cabra, Dublin.
Coogan’s particular focus is on Ireland’s nationalist/independence movement in the 20th century, a period of unprecedented political upheaval. He blames the Troubles in Northern Ireland on “Paisleyism.”
In 2000, Irish writer and editor Ruth Dudley Edwards is awarded £25,000 damages and a public apology by the High Court in London against Coogan for factual errors in references to her in his book Wherever Green is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora (2000). In the book, he writes that Dudley Edwards had “groveled to and hypocritically ingratiated herself with the English establishment to further her writing career.” He also alleges that Dudley Edwards “had abused the position of chairwoman of the British Association for Irish Studies (BAIS) by trying to impose her political views on it” and that her commission to write True Brits had been awarded because of political favouritism.
When TaoiseachEnda Kenny causes confusion following a speech at Béal na Bláth by incorrectly claiming Michael Collins had brought Lenin to Ireland, Coogan comments, “Those were the days when bishops were bishops and Lenin was a communist. How would that have gone down with the churchyard collections?”
Coogan has been criticised by the Irish historians Liam Kennedy and Diarmaid Ferriter, as well as Cormac Ó Gráda, for a supposed lack of thoroughness in his research and bias:
“Well, I waited in this book to hear some great revelation, and it just isn’t there. It’s anticlimactic. I could not see the great plot, and indeed there is no serious historian who … I can’t think of a single historian who has researched the Famine in depth – and Tim Pat has not researched it in depth” (The Famine Plot).
“Coogan is not remotely interested in looking at what others have written on 20th-century Irish history…. he does not appear interested in context and shows scant regard for evidence. He does not attempt to offer any sustained analysis in relation to the challenges of state building, the meaning of sovereignty, economic and cultural transformations, or comparative perspectives on the evolution of Irish society. There is no indication whatsoever that Coogan has engaged with the abundant archival material relating to the subject matter he pronounces on. There is no rhyme or reason when it comes to the citation of the many quotations he uses; the vast majority are not referenced. For the 300-page text, 21 endnotes are cited and six of them relate to Coogan’s previous books, a reminder that much of this tome consists of recycled material…. Tim Pat Coogan… he is a decent, compassionate man who has made a significant contribution to Irish life. But he has not read up on Irish history; indeed, such is the paucity of his research efforts that this book amounts to a travesty of 20th-century Irish history” (1916: The Mornings After).
Alan Martin Dukes, former Fine Gaelpolitician, is born in Drimnagh, Dublin, on April 20, 1945. He holds several senior government positions and serves as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1981 to 2002. He is one of the few TDs to be appointed a minister on their first day in the Dáil.
The Dukes family originally comes from the north of England. His grandfather serves with the Royal Engineers in World War I and settles in County Cork and then County Kerry afterward where he works with the Post Office creating Ireland’s telephone network.
Dukes is educated by the Christian Brothers at Coláiste Mhuire, Dublin, and is offered several scholarships for third level on graduation, including one for the Irish language. His interest in the Irish language continues to this day, and he regularly appears on Irish-language television programmes.
On leaving school he attends University College Dublin (UCD), where he captains the fencing team to its first-ever Intervarsity title.
In the 1979 European Parliament election, Dukes stands as a Fine Gael candidate in the Munster constituency. He has strong support among the farming community, but the entry of T. J. Maher, a former president of the IFA, as an independent candidate hurts his chances of election. Maher tops the poll.
This minority Fine Gael–Labour Partycoalition government collapses in February 1982 on the budget but returns to power with a working majority in December 1982. Dukes is again appointed to cabinet, becoming Minister for Finance less than two years into his Dáil career.
He faces a difficult task as finance minister. Ireland is heavily in debt while unemployment and emigration are high. Many of Fine Gael’s plans are deferred while the Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition disagrees on how to solve the economic crisis. The challenge of addressing the national finances is made difficult by electoral arithmetic and a lack of support from the opposition Fianna Fáil party led by Charles Haughey. He remains in the Department of Finance until a reshuffle in February 1986 when he is appointed Minister for Justice.
This is a difficult time for the country. Haughey’s Fianna Fáil runs on promises to increase spending and government services, and attacking the cutbacks favoured by Fine Gael. However, on taking office, the new Taoiseach and his finance minister Ray MacSharry immediately draw up a set of cutbacks including a spate of ward and hospital closures. This presents a political opportunity for the opposition to attack the government.
However, while addressing a meeting of the TallaghtChamber of Commerce, Dukes announces, in what becomes known as the Tallaght Strategy that: “When the government is moving in the right direction, I will not oppose the central thrust of its policy. If it is going in the right direction, I do not believe that it should be deviated from its course, or tripped up on macro-economic issues.”
This represents a major departure in Irish politics whereby Fine Gael will vote with the minority Fianna Fáil Government if it adopts Fine Gael’s economic policies for revitalising the economy. The consequences of this statement are huge. The Haughey government is able to take severe corrective steps to restructure the economy and lay the foundations for the economic boom of the nineties. However, at a snap election in 1989, Dukes does not receive electoral credit for this approach, and the party only makes minor gains, gaining four seats. The outcome is the first-ever coalition government for Fianna Fáil, whose junior partner is the Progressive Democrats led by former Fianna Fáil TD Desmond O’Malley.
Initially, Fianna Fáil’s Brian Lenihan Snr is the favourite to win. However, after several controversies arise, relating to the brief Fianna Fáil administration of 1982, and Lenihan’s dismissal as Minister for Defence midway through the campaign, the Labour Party’s Mary Robinson emerges victorious. To many in Fine Gael, the humiliation of finishing third is too much to bear and a campaign is launched against Dukes’ leadership. He is subsequently replaced as party leader by John Bruton.
Bruton brings Dukes back to the front bench in September 1992, shortly before the November 1992 Irish general election. In February 1994, Dukes becomes involved in a failed attempt to oust Bruton as leader and subsequently resigns from the front bench. Bruton becomes Taoiseach in December 1994 and Dukes is not appointed to cabinet at the formation of the government.
In 2001, Dukes backs Michael Noonan in his successful bid to become leader of Fine Gael.
After 21 years, Dukes loses his Dáil seat at the 2002 Irish general election. This contest sees many high-profile casualties for Fine Gael, including Deputy LeaderJim Mitchell, former deputy leader Nora Owen and others. Many local commentators feel that Dukes’ loss is due to a lack of attention to local issues, as he is highly involved in European projects and has always enjoyed a national profile.
He retires from frontline politics in 2002 and is subsequently appointed Director General of the Institute of International and European Affairs. He remains active within Fine Gael and serves several terms as the party’s vice-president. From 2001 to 2011, he is President of the Alliance française in Dublin, and in June 2004, the French Government appoints him an Officer of the Legion of Honour. In April 2004, he is awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
In December 2008, Dukes is appointed by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan Jnr as a public interest director on the board of Anglo Irish Bank. The bank is subsequently nationalised, and he serves on the board until the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) is liquidated in 2013.
Dukes has lived in Kildare since first being elected to represent the Kildare constituency in 1981. His wife Fionnuala (née Corcoran) is a former local politician and serves as a member of Kildare County Council from 1999 until her retirement in 2009. She serves as Cathaoirleach of the council from 2006 to 2007, becoming only the second woman to hold the position in the body’s one-hundred-year history. They have two daughters.
Coppinger is a member of Fingal County Council for the Mulhuddart local electoral area from 2003 to 2014. She is co-opted to the council in 2003, replacing Joe Higgins, and is elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2009. She is an unsuccessful candidate for the Socialist Party at the 2011 Dublin West by-election.
Following victory in the 2014 Dublin West by-election, Coppinger joins her party colleague Joe Higgins in the Dáil. After being elected, she calls for a mass campaign of opposition to water charges being implemented by the Fine Gael–Labour Partycoalition.
In November 2014, Coppinger calls for the gradual nationalisation of U.S. multinationals to prevent job losses. In response, Fianna Fáil’s jobs spokesperson Dara Calleary calls the idea “reckless and ludicrous,” as it would “place a massive burden on taxpayers and the public finances.”
In September 2015, Coppinger joins homeless families from Blanchardstown, in occupying a NAMA-controlled property as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the housing crisis. In October 2015, she joins families in their occupation of a show house in her constituency, to protest the lack of availability of affordable social housing. She also supports the tenants of Tyrrelstown, who are made homeless when a Goldman Sachsvulture fund sells their houses.
Coppinger is re-elected to the Dáil at the 2016 Irish general election, this time under the Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit banner. On March 10. 2016, at the first sitting of the 32nd Dáil, she nominates Richard Boyd Barrett for the office of Taoiseach, quoting James Connolly from a hundred years previously when she says, “The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system. It must go,” and declaring, “We will not vote for the identical twin candidates” of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil after they “imposed austerity.” On April 6, 2016, following the failure of the Dáil to elect a Taoiseach at that first sitting, she is nominated for the role of Taoiseach, becoming the first female nominee in the history of the state.
In 2018 Coppinger praises the MeToo movement for exposing patterns of abuse and systemic inequality. However, she also notes the limitations of achieving justice through traditional channels and calls for a stronger focus on combating intimate partner violence and societal tolerance of such abuse.
In April 2018, in the lead-up to the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, Coppinger, along with her colleague Paul Murphy, holds up a Repeal sign during leader’s questions and is reprimanded by the Ceann Comhairle. She is an advocate for abortion rights in Ireland, and is a founding member of ROSA, a movement for reproductive justice in Ireland. Earlier, in 2016, she tables the private members’ motion to repeal the Eighth Amendment.
In November 2018, Coppinger protests in the Dáil against the conduct of a rape trial in Ireland. During the trial, the defence team, as part of their argument that the sex had been consensual, states that the 17-year-old victim had worn a thong with a lace front. The defendant is subsequently found not guilty. During a sitting of the Dáil, Coppinger holds up a similar pair of underwear and admonishes the conduct of the trial, suggesting victim blaming tactics had been used and suggests this is a routine occurrence in Irish courts. She calls on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to support her party’s bill that would increase sex education in Irish schools and provide additional training to the Irish judiciary and jurors on how to handle cases of rape. Varadkar responds that victims should not be blamed for what happens to them, irrespective of how they are dressed, where they are or if they have consumed alcohol.
In 2019 Coppinger sponsors a private member’s bill – the Domestic Violence (No-contact order) (Amendment) Bill 2019. The bill lapses with the dissolution of the Dáil and Seanad.
In June 2024, Coppinger is elected to Fingal County Council for the Castleknock local electoral area on the 7th Count. At the 2024 Irish general election, she is re-elected to the Dáil.
Coppinger is an advocate of secularism and believes in abolishing both the Angelus and the Dáil prayer, viewing them as relics of an outdated intertwining of religion and governance. She supports the separation of Church and State, criticising the Catholic Church‘s historical influence in education and health, as well as its financial privileges, including exemptions from accountability under regulations like SIPO. She has called for the requisitioning of Church lands and property, citing the Church’s failure to meet commitments to abuse victims and the necessity of addressing historical injustices.
On drug policy, Coppinger supports decriminalisation and endorses the Portuguese model, which treats addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal matter. She emphasises the hypocrisy of criminalising drug use while overlooking the societal harm caused by alcohol and advocates for expanding access to medicinal cannabis, criticising the political inertia in addressing this need.
In 2013, during referendum to abolish the Irish senate, Coppinger campaigns for a yes vote, calling the institution elitist and undemocratic. However, in 2020, following the loss of her Dáil seat, she runs unsuccessfully for a seat in the Senate. Challenged by the Irish Examiner on this, she states that so long as the Senate continues to exist, it should be used to further progressive causes.
Coppinger lives in Mulhuddart and is a secondary school teacher. Her eldest brother, Eugene Coppinger, serves on Fingal County Council from 2011 to 2019.
Conway is born on January 22, 1913, in Belfast, the eldest of four sons and five daughters of Patrick Joseph Conway and Annie Conway (née Donnelly). His father, a self-employed housepainter, also has a paint shop in Kent Street off Royal Avenue. His mother, who survives her son, is born in Carlingford, County Louth. He attends Boundary Street Primary School, St. Mary’s CBS (now St. Mary’s CBGS Belfast). His academic successes are crowned by a scholarship to Queen’s University Belfast. He decides to study for the diocesan priesthood. In 1933 he is conferred with an honours BA in English literature and goes on to read a distinguished course in theology at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
Conway is ordained on June 20, 1937, and awarded a DD (1938). On November 12, 1938, he enters the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, and in 1941 he receives the DCL degree at the Pontifical Gregorian University. When Italy enters World War II in June 1940, he returns to Belfast to take up duty in the Diocese of Down and Connor. He is appointed to teach English and Latin in St. Malachy’s College in Belfast, but after one year he is named professor of moral theology and canon law in Maynooth. He contributes regular ‘Canon law replies’ to the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, which are later collected as Problems in canon law (1950), the only book published by him.
In 1957 Conway becomes vice-president of Maynooth, and in 1958, he is named Ireland’s youngest bishop, Titular Bishop of Neve, and auxiliary bishop to Cardinal John D’Alton, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. He is consecrated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh on July 27, 1958. He serves as administrator of St. Patrick’s Church, Dundalk, for the next five years, gaining valuable pastoral experience, and also uses these years to familiarise himself with his new diocese, especially its geography. On the death of D’Alton, he is chosen to succeed him in September 1963, and is enthroned on September 25 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh by the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Sensi. At the end of 1964, Pope Paul VI chooses him as Ireland’s seventh residential cardinal, and he receives the red hat in the public consistory of February 22, 1965.
The thirteen-odd years of Conway’s ministry as primate are dominated firstly by the Second Vatican Council and secondly by the Troubles in Northern Ireland. His primary concern is the church, to steer it through testing times. He is a very active bishop in a diocese of 160,000 Catholics, with fifty-seven parishes and some 167 priests. He carries the burden alone until 1974 when he is given an auxiliary in the person of his secretary, Fr. Francis Lenny (1928–78). Two new parishes are created, five new churches are built, and many others are renovated to meet the requirements of liturgical reform. Twenty new schools are also provided. He attends all four sessions of the Vatican council (1962–65), as auxiliary bishop and as primate. On October 9, 1963, he addresses the assembly, making a plea that the council might not be so concerned with weightier matters as to neglect to speak about priests. He also makes contributions on the topics of mixed marriages, Catholic schools, and the laity. On the topic of education, he is convinced that integrated schools will not solve Northern Ireland’s problems.
Conway represents the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference at each assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, at first with Bishop Michael Browne of the Diocese of Galway and Kilmacduagh, his former professor in Maynooth, and later with the Archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Ryan. With Cardinals Jean-Marie Villot and Pericle Felici, he is chairman of the first synod in 1969, a signal honour conferred on him by Pope Paul VI. He addresses the assembly, opposing the ordination of married men as a move that would release a flood of applications from around the world for dispensations from priestly celibacy. His experience of violence in Northern Ireland is reflected in contributions he makes to later synod assemblies, especially in 1971 and 1974.
Apart from the synod, Conway travels a few times each year to Rome for meetings of the three Roman congregations on which he is called to serve (those of bishops, catholic education, and the evangelisation of peoples) and the commission for the revision of the code of canon law. He also travels further afield in a representative capacity to the International Eucharistic Congress at Bogotá, also attended by Pope Paul VI, and to Madras (1972), where he acts as papal legate for the centenary celebrations in honour of St. Thomas. In 1966 he is invited by the bishops of Poland to join in celebrations for the millennium of Catholicism in that country but is refused an entry visa by the Polish government. In January 1973 he feels obliged to forgo participation in the Melbourne eucharistic congress because of the troubled situation at home. Within Ireland he accepts invitations to become a freeman of Cork and Galway (1965) and of Wexford (1966). In 1976 the National University of Ireland (NUI) confers on him an honorary LL.D.
Conway is acknowledged as an able and diligent chairman of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The core problem in the early years is how to lead the Irish church into the difficult new era that follows the council. He shows exceptional leadership qualities in the manner in which he promotes firm but gentle progress, avoiding sudden trauma and divisions. A major event in his term as Archbishop of Armagh, and one that gives him much satisfaction, is the canonization of Oliver Plunkett, his martyred predecessor, in the holy year 1975. He follows with great interest the final stages of the cause from 1968 and is greatly disappointed when grounded by his doctors six weeks before the event. He does however take part, concelebrating with Pope Paul VI at the ceremony on October 12, 1975. He also presides the following evening at the first mass of thanksgiving in the Lateran Basilica, receiving a tumultuous applause from the thousands of Irish present.
More than anything else, the Troubles in Northern Ireland occupy Conway during the second half of his term as archbishop and primate. He is the leading spokesman of the Catholic cause but never fails to condemn atrocities wherever the responsibility lay. He brands as ‘monsters’ the terrorist bombers on both sides. In 1971 he denounces internment without trial, and the following year he is mainly responsible for highlighting the ill-treatment and even torture of prisoners in Northern Ireland. He repudiates the idea that the conflict is religious in nature, emphasising its social and political dimensions, and is openly critical of the British government over conditions in Long Kesh Detention Centre, and of ‘the cloak of almost total silence’ surrounding violence against the Catholic community.
In January 1977 Conway undergoes surgery in a Dublin hospital, and almost immediately comes to know that he is terminally ill. It is the best-kept secret in Ireland until close to the end. On March 29, he writes to his fellow bishops informing them that the prognosis regarding his health is ‘not good, in fact . . . very bad,’ and that he is perfectly reconciled to God’s will. He is still able to work at his desk until Good Friday, April 8, 1977.
Conway dies in Armagh on Low Sunday night, April 17, 1977. Seven countries are represented at his funeral by six cardinals and many bishops. The apostolic nuncio, the bishops of Ireland, the president and Taoiseach, six Irish government ministers, and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland are also among the mourners. The cardinal is laid to rest in St. Patrick’s Cathedral Cemetery, Armagh. The red hat received from Pope Paul VI is suspended from the ceiling of the Lady chapel, joining those of his four immediate predecessors.
(From: “Conway, John William,” Dictionary of Irish Biography, http://www.dib.ie, contributed by J. J. Hanley)
The Littlejohn brothers are jailed on August 3, 1973, for a £67,000 robbery at an Allied Irish Banks branch on Grafton Street, Dublin, in October 1972, the biggest to date in Irish history.
During their trial the brothers claim to have been working for the British Government against the IRA. They say they had been told to stage the robbery to discredit the republican organisation and force the Irish Government to introduce tougher measures against its members. The British Government, however, denies all knowledge of the brothers.
Kenneth is sentenced to twenty years while his brother receives a fifteen-year term. During their time in prison the brothers exhaust all the appeals processes, with their final appeal being turned down in January 1974.
The brothers escape from Mountjoy during an exercise period. They scale the 25-foot-high main prison wall with homemade ropes while other prisoners distract the guards. However, the pair is spotted as they climb an outer wall.
Keith, 29, who has injured his ankle, is recaptured near the prison. Kenneth, 32, however, disappears without trace and is believed to be heading for the border with Northern Ireland. He is recaptured in December 1974. The brothers are released early in 1981 on condition they leave the Republic of Ireland.
Keith’s successful bid for freedom comes as a surprise. He has been weakened by a hunger strike he has been conducting since February in support of a demand for political prisoner status.
From the time the brothers are jailed the British Government steadfastly continues to deny all knowledge of them.
But the brothers’ tale does receive partial validation the prior year. Ireland’s former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, admits he had been given diplomatic reports from the British authorities in January 1973 about the UK’s contact with the Littlejohn brothers.
In 1982, Nottingham Crown Court jails Kenneth Littlejohn for six years for his part in a £1,300 armed robbery at the Old Manor House, North Wingfield, Chesterfield, England. Keith Littlejohn, however, is cleared of a similar offence.
O’Higgins is described at his removal as a great Christian gentleman whose secular activities were outstanding both to his country and to Europe.
The chief mourners in St. Patrick’s Church are joined by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, and many representatives of the judiciary and politics. The mourners are led by his widow Terry, his children Tom, Geraldine, Michael, Barry, Kevin, Derval and Shane, his thirty grandchildren, his brother Michael and sister Rosaleen.
The parish priest, Father Maurice O’Moore, tells many hundreds in the congregation that O’Higgins and his wife had been regular worshippers at the church.
“Tom was a man of deep faith and his demeanour at prayer was an inspiration to me personally and to parishioners. I think of him this evening as a man of faith, as a man of prayer and a great Christian gentleman. His secular activities through his legal expertise were outstanding both to his country and to Europe,” he says.
Father O’Moore adds that many tributes had been paid to O’Higgins in the media, and everybody can be proud of the contribution he made as an Irishman through his religious faith, his sincerity and love of his country.
Father Bruce Bradley SJ, a friend of the family, gives a reading from the Gospel.
Also attending is Harry Hill SC, retired master of the High Court, Feargus Flood, chairman of the Flood Tribunal, as well many Supreme Court and High Court judges and barristers. The director-general of the Law Society, Ken Murphy, is also present, as are many solicitors.
The world of politics is well represented, particularly by members of the Fine Gael party, for which O’Higgins was a Teachta Dála (TD) and minister in the 1940s and 1950s.
Two former taoisigh, Garret FitzGerald and Liam Cosgrave, attend. Also present is the leader of the Fine Gael party, Enda Kenny, and Tom Hayes, chairman of the Parliamentary Party, as well as many party TDs and former deputies.
(From: “A great Christian gentleman’ whose secular activities served State, Europe,” by Christine Newman, The Irish Times, http://www.irishtimes.com, February 27, 2003)
Shatter is the son of Reuben and Elaine Shatter, an English couple who meet by chance when they are both on holiday in Ireland in 1947. He is educated at The High School, Dublin, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the Europa Institute of the University of Amsterdam. In his late teens, he works for two months in Israel on a kibbutz. He is a partner in the Dublin law firm Gallagher Shatter (1977-2011). As a solicitor he acts as advocate in many seminal and leading cases determined both by the Irish High and Supreme Courts. He is the author of one the major academic works on Irish family law which advocates substantial constitutional and family law reform.
Under Shatter’s steerage, a substantial reform agenda is implemented with nearly 30 separate pieces of legislation published, many of which are now enacted including the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, Criminal Justice Act 2011, DNA Database Act, and the Human Rights and Equality Commission Act.
Under Shatter’s guidance, major reforms are introduced in 2011 into Ireland’s citizenship laws and a new Citizenship Ceremony is created. He both devises and pilots Ireland’s first ever citizenship ceremony which takes place in June 2011 and a new inclusive citizenship oath which he includes in his reforming legislation. During his time as Minister, he clears an enormous backlog of citizenship applications, and 69,000 foreign nationals become Irish citizens. Some applications had lain dormant for 3 to 4 years. He introduces a general rule that save where there is some real complication, all properly made citizenship applications should be processed within a six-month period. He also takes steps to facilitate an increased number of political refugees being accepted into Ireland and creates a special scheme to facilitate relations of Syrian families already resident in Ireland who are either caught up in the Syrian civil war, or in refugee camps elsewhere as a result of the Syrian civil war, to join their families in Ireland.
Shatter enacts legislation before the end of July 2011 to facilitate access to financial documentation and records held by third parties in investigations into banking scandals and white-collar crime. The legislation is first used by the Gardaí in September 2011.
During Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2013, Shatter chairs the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) meetings and, in January 2013, in Dublin Castle, the meeting of EU Defence Ministers. Under his guidance, Ireland plays a more active role than in the past in EU defence matters and in deepening Ireland’s participation in NATO’s partnership for peace. During the Irish Presidency, substantial progress is made at the European Union level in the adoption and development of new legislation and measures across a broad range of Justice and Home Affairs issues.
Shatter implements substantial reform in the Department of Defence and restructures the Irish Defence Forces. He is a strong supporter of the Irish Defence Forces participation in international peacekeeping and humanitarian engagements and is an expert on the Middle East. As a member of the Irish Parliament and as Minister on many occasions, he visits Irish troops participating in United Nations (UN) missions in the Middle East. Under his watch contracts are signed for the acquisition of two new naval vessels with an option to purchase a third. All three naval vessels are now part of the Irish Naval Service and have been actively engaged in recent years in rescuing drowning refugees in the Mediterranean Sea attempting to enter Europe.
As Minister for Defence he enacts legislation to grant a pardon and an amnesty to members of the Irish Defence Forces who deserted during World War II to fight on the allied side against Nazi Germany and gives a state apology for their post-war treatment by the Irish State.
Shatter is the minister responsible for two amendments to the Constitution of Ireland which are passed in referendums: the Twenty-ninth Amendment in 2011 to allow for the reduction of judges’ pay, and the Thirty-third Amendment in 2013 to establish a Court of Appeal. Just prior to his resignation from government, the draft legislation to create the court is published and the court is established and sitting by October 2014.
The jurisdictions of the courts are extended for the first time in 20 years and the maximum civil damages payable for the emotional distress of bereaved relations following a negligent death is increased.
As a politician, Shatter plays a lead role in effecting much of the constitutional and legislative change he advocates. He is a former chairperson of FLAC (the Free Legal Advice Centres), a former chairperson of CARE, an organisation that campaigns for childcare and children’s legislation reform in the 1970s and a former President of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports.
Shatter is a founder member of the Irish Soviet Jewry Committee in 1970 and pioneers a successful all party Dáil motion on the plight of Soviet Jewry (1984) and visits various refuseniks in Moscow in 1985. He is a former chairperson of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee (1996-97) and initiates the creation of an Ireland/Israel Parliamentary Friendship group in 1997, leading a number of visits to Israel by members of the Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.
Shatter is the author of the satirical book Family Planning Irish Style (1979), and the novel Laura (1989). In 2017 his biography, Life is a Funny Business, is published by Poolbeg Press and in 2019 Frenzy and Betrayal: The Anatomy of a Political Assassination is published by Merrion Press. In 2023, his book Cyril’s Lottery of Life, a comedic book with an English solicitor from a small town as its protagonist, is published.
O’Hanlon enters his first electoral contest when he is the Fianna Fáil candidate in the 1973 Monaghan by-election caused by the election of Erskine Childers to the Presidency. He is unsuccessful on this occasion but is eventually elected at the 1977 Irish general election for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency. He is one of a handful of new Fianna Fáil deputies who are elected in that landslide victory for the party and, as a new TD, he remains on the backbenches. Two years later he becomes a member of Monaghan County Council, serving on that authority until 1987.
When Fianna Fáil returns to power after a short-lived Fine Gael–Labour Party government in 1982, O’Hanlon is once again overlooked for ministerial promotion. An extensive cabinet reshuffle toward the end of the year sees him become Minister of State for Social Welfare Claims. His tenure is short-lived as the government falls a few weeks later and Fianna Fáil are out of power.
In early 1983, Charles Haughey announces a new front bench, and O’Hanlon is promoted to the position of spokesperson on Health and Social Welfare.
Following the 1987 Irish general election, Fianna Fáil are back in power, albeit with a minority government, and O’Hanlon becomes Minister for Health. Immediately after taking office, he is confronted with several controversial issues, including the resolution of a radiographers’ dispute and the formation of an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. While Fianna Fáil campaigns on a platform of not introducing any public spending cuts, the party commits a complete U-turn once in government. The savage cuts about healthcare earn O’Hanlon the nickname “Dr. Death.” Despite earning this reputation, he also introduces a law to curb smoking in public places.
In 1991, O’Hanlon becomes Minister for the Environment following Albert Reynolds‘ failed leadership challenge against Charles Haughey.
When Reynolds eventually comes to power in 1992, O’Hanlon is one of several high-profile members of the cabinet who lose their ministerial positions.
In 1995, O’Hanlon becomes chair of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party before being elected Leas-Cheann Comhairle (deputy chair) of Dáil Éireann in 1997. Following the 2002 Irish general election, he becomes Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann. In this position, he is required to remain neutral and, as such, he is no longer classed as a representative of any political party. He is an active chair of the Dáil. However, on occasion, he is criticised, most notably by Labour’s Pat Rabbitte, for allegedly stifling debate and being overly protective of the government. Following the 2007 Irish general election, he is succeeded as Ceann Comhairle by John O’Donoghue. He is the vice-chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Two of O’Hanlon’s children have served as local politicians in Cavan-Monaghan. A son Shane is a former member of Monaghan County Council and a daughter Fiona O’Hea serves one term on Cootehill Town Council. The Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin is also a relation of O’Hanlon. He is also the father of actor and comedian Ardal O’Hanlon.
Doyle is born on May 17, 1923, in Dundrum, Dublin, to Michael and Eileen Doyle (née Lawlor), one of seven children. In 1945, at the age of 22, he builds a pub and leisure complex called the County Club in Churchtown, Dublin. Following the success of this venture, he moves into the hotel business.
The first hotel that Doyle develops is the South County Hotel in Stillorgan, now called the Stillorgan Park Hotel, which opens in 1964. He officially registers his hotel company as P. V. Doyle Hotels Limited on September 4, 1969.
Doyle marries Margaret Ellen Briody, a nurse, in Ballynarry Church, Kilnaleck, County Cavan in 1947. They have five children together: sons Michael, David and daughters Anne, Eileen and Bernie.
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