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Tag Archives: Teachta Dála


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Birth of Bobby Molloy, Independent Politician

Robert Molloy, independent politician, is born in Galway, County Galway, on July 9, 1936.

Molloy’s father, Michael Edward Molloy, is originally from Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, and runs a successful wholesale drapery business in the city. His mother, Rita Stanley, hails from Clifden, County Galway. He is educated at Coláiste Iognáid and University College Galway. Before entering politics, he works for several years in printing, the clothing industry and his family’s drapery firm.

Molloy is first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Galway West constituency at the 1965 Irish general election. In 1968, he is also elected Mayor of Galway. The following year he was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education. 

Molloy’s early political career is marked by his loyalty to Fianna Fáil’s leadership under Taoiseach Jack Lynch. He quickly rises through the ranks and is appointed Minister for Local Government in 1970, a position he holds until 1973. His tenure as Minister for Local Government is characterised by his efforts to modernise and streamline local government structures in Ireland. His tenure in Fianna Fáil sees him as a stalwart of the party’s establishment, though tensions with its leadership grow over the years, particularly with Charles Haughey.

In opposition from 1973, Molloy serves as the frontbench spokesman, where he becomes involved in a high-profile dispute with James Tully, the Labour Minister for Local Government, over the controversial redrawing of constituencies, known as the “Tullymander.” Molloy, along with fellow Fianna Fáil member Brendan Crinion, used Dáil privilege to accuse Tully of having an improper commercial relationship with a builder in County Meath. The accusation is strongly denied by Tully and Molloy and Crinion later withdraw the charge. Despite this, Molloy faces severe repercussions, being forced to resign from his frontbench position. He is subsequently condemned by a judicial tribunal and censured by the Dáil for abusing parliamentary privilege.

When Fianna Fáil returns to office in 1977, Molloy becomes Minister for Defence in the final government of Jack Lynch.

Molloy supports George Colley in the 1979 Fianna Fáil leadership election. Charles Haughey wins the contest and drops Molloy, alongside other opponents, from the cabinet. Thereafter Molloy becomes a member of the Gang of 22 who oppose Haughey’s leadership of the party.

In 1986, Molloy resigns from Fianna Fáil and joins the newly formed Progressive Democrats, spearheaded by Haughey’s arch-rival Desmond O’Malley. Molloy’s move is seen as a major break from the political establishment, as the Progressive Democrats advocate for low-tax, market-oriented economic policies and a more liberal economic agenda. His decision is driven by his dissatisfaction with the direction of Fianna Fáil under Haughey’s leadership and his belief that the party has become increasingly alienating. 

In 1989, Molloy contests the European Parliament elections but is unsuccessful in his attempt. Following the 1989 Irish general election, Molloy, along with newly elected MEP for Munster Pat Cox, represents the Progressive Democrats in the lengthy negotiations with Fianna Fáil to form a coalition government. Once the negotiations conclude, he is reinstated in the Cabinet as Minister for Energy under Taoiseach Charles Haughey, who had previously caused Molloy’s political humiliation a decade earlier. Over the following three years, Molloy and his Progressive Democrat colleague Desmond O’Malley have a working relationship with their former Fianna Fáil colleagues, though tensions grow due to resentment over their presence in the Cabinet. The issue comes to a head when Molloy and O’Malley make it clear they will not serve in a Cabinet that includes Brian Lenihan Snr, following his controversial remarks during the 1990 Irish presidential election about alleged phone calls to President Patrick Hillery from 1982.

In January 1992, Haughey faces further complications when Seán Doherty reveals information about the phone tapping of journalists dating back to 1982. Despite this, the coalition government ends when Albert Reynolds, Haughey’s successor, calls for a general election after accusing O’Malley of giving “dishonest” evidence to the Beef Tribunal. Molloy strongly denounces Reynolds’ accusation, describing it as “outrageous,” and criticises him for what he perceives as a “lack of generosity” in recent North-South negotiations, in which Molloy had represented the Progressive Democrats in talks with British Unionists.

Molloy stands at the European Parliament elections again in 1994 but is again unsuccessful.

Following the 1997 Irish general election, Molloy is part of the negotiations that lead to the formation of a coalition government between the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil. On that occasion, he is appointed as Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government and sits at cabinet as Minister of State to the Government.

Molloy resigns as a minister and quits politics just before the 2002 Irish general election amid controversy surrounding his involvement in the rape case of Barbara Naughton. The controversy stems from a letter Molloy sent to then Minister for Justice, John O’Donoghue, on behalf of a constituent whose relative had been convicted of rape. The letter, which requests the temporary release of the individual pending an appeal, leads to public criticism. The case is high-profile, involving a Connemara man sentenced to eleven years for the systematic abuse of his young daughter. During the trial, the judge, Philip O’Sullivan, notes that someone acting on Molloy’s behalf had tried to contact him in his chambers to clarify whether he had received certain correspondence from the victim’s sister, which the judge describes as “quite improper.” In response to the backlash, Molloy resigns, describing the letter as a “human error of judgment,” but insisting it was not intended to be dishonest. He retires from politics after the election.

Molloy is a member of Fianna Fáil for over 20 years, but his views are not always in line with the mainstream of the party, particularly under the leadership of Charles Haughey. His decision to leave Fianna Fáil in 1986 and join the Progressive Democrats is motivated by ideological differences, notably the party’s move toward a more conservative, state-controlled economy. Molloy, on the other hand, embraces a platform of fiscal conservatism, with an emphasis on reducing taxes, deregulation, and the liberalisation of the economy.

In terms of social issues, Molloy is ahead of his time in advocating for progressive policies, particularly on women’s rights. In a survey conducted in 1976 by the Women’s Political Association (WPA), Molloy scores among the highest of any member of the Dáil for his progressive stance on issues affecting women. He supports measures such as divorce, contraception, and family law reform, which are seen as highly controversial at the time. His responses to the WPA’s questions reveal that he holds views that are in stark contrast to many of his colleagues within Fianna Fáil. His progressive views on women’s rights are notable, as he is the only member of Jack Lynch’s cabinet who consistently supports reformist policies on issues like family law and the role of women in public life.

In 1972, Molloy marries Phyllis Barry, a Montessori teacher from Foxrock, County Dublin, whose father is a cousin of the executed revolutionary Kevin Barry. The couple meet while campaigning in a by-election in mid-Cork. Together, they have four children: Sinead, Sorcha, Donnacha, and Dara.

Molloy dies at the age of 80 on October 2, 2016, in Salthill, Galway, County Galway. He is buried at Bohermore Cemetery, Bohermore, Galway.


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Death of Michael Moynihan, Labour Party Politician

Michael Moynihan, Irish Labour Party politician, dies in Cork, County Cork, on June 27, 2001. He serves as Minister of State at the Department of Trade, Commerce and Tourism from 1982 to 1987. He also serves as a senator from 1973 to 1981 and as a Teachta Dála for the Kerry South constituency from 1981 to 1987 and 1989 to 1992.

Moynihan is born in Kinsale, County Cork, on June 17, 1917. He is a psychiatric nurse by profession.

Moynihan is an unsuccessful candidate in the Kerry South constituency six times, at the  1954,  1961,  1965,  1973 and  1977 Irish general elections, and at a by-election in 1966.

Moynihan is elected in 1973 to the 13th Seanad as a senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel, which re-elects him in 1977 to the 14th Seanad.

At the 1981 Irish general election, on his seventh attempt, Moynihan is elected to the 22nd Dáil, becoming the first ever Labour Party TD for Kerry South, and returns to the 23rd Dáil at the February 1982 Irish general election. He is re-elected at the November 1982 Irish general election, sitting in the 24th Dáil. He serves as Minister of State at the Department of Trade, Commerce and Tourism from 1982 to 1987.

Moynihan is defeated at the 1987 Irish general election, but returns at the 1989 Irish general election to sit in the 26th Dáil. He does not stand at the 1992 Irish general election, when his seat is retained for the Labour Party by his daughter Breeda Moynihan-Cronin.


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Birth of Nora Owen, Former Fine Gael Politician

Nora Owen (née O’Mahony), former Fine Gael politician, is born in Malahide, Dublin, on June 1, 1945. She serves as Minister for Justice from 1994 to 1997 and Deputy leader of Fine Gael from 1993 to 2001. She serves as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North constituency from 1981 to 1987 and 1989 to 2002. She is a presenter of TV3‘s topical programme Midweek.

Owen is a sister of Mary Banotti and a grandniece of the Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins. She is educated at Dominican Convent, County Wicklow and University College Dublin (UCD) where she qualifies as an industrial chemist.

Owen is first elected to Dublin County Council in 1979 for the Malahide local electoral area. She is later elected as a Fine Gael TD for the first time in 1981, serving until the 1987 Irish general election when she loses her seat. That year she becomes a member of the executive of Trócaire, an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO) which is based in Ireland. She returns to Dáil Éireann following the 1989 Irish general election. In 1993, she becomes Deputy leader of Fine Gael. The following year she becomes Minister for Justice, remaining in that post until 1997. She undertakes a significant programme of criminal law reform. Among the major changes she implements is the referendum on bail in 1996, leading to the Bail Act of 1997, which allows a court to refuse bail to those charged with a serious offence where it is considered necessary to prevent them committing a serious offence. Journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered in 1996 and in its aftermath, Owen introduces the highly successful Criminal Assets Bureau to crack down on organised crime. In 2002, she becomes the first high-profile Fine Gael TD to lose her seat in Dublin North in the party’s disastrous general election result.

Owen is the patron of the Collins 22 Society, which works to keep the memory and legacy of Michael Collins in living memory. She occasionally works as an election pundit. In August 2011, it is announced she is to present the Irish version of Mastermind on TV3.


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Birth of Ivana Bacik, Labour Party Politician

Ivana Catherine Bacik, Irish politician who has been the Leader of the Labour Party since March 24, 2022 and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay South constituency since winning a by-election on July 9, 2021, is born in Dublin on May 25, 1968. She comes to prominence due to her abortion rights campaigning from the 1980s onward.

Bacik’s paternal grandfather, Charles Bacik, was a Czech factory owner who moved to Ireland in 1946. He eventually settled in Waterford, County Waterford, and in 1947 was involved in the establishment of Waterford Crystal. Her mother’s side of the family are Murphys from County Clare. Her father is an astronomer and is employed in a number of locations. As a result, she lives in London and South Africa, before moving to Crookstown, County Cork, at the age of six, when he becomes a physics lecturer in the Cork Institute of Technology. She attends the nearby national school in Cloughduv. When she is 11 years old, her family moves to the Sunday’s Well area of Cork city. At the age of 14, she moves to Dublin.

Bacik wins a scholarship to board at Alexandra College in Milltown, Dublin, and is awarded a sizarship at Trinity College Dublin. She has an LL.B. from Trinity and an LL.M. from the London School of Economics.

Bacik contests the Seanad Éireann elections in 1997 and 2002 as an independent candidate for the Dublin University constituency but is not successful.

She runs as a Labour Party candidate at the 2004 election to the European Parliament in the Dublin constituency. She runs with sitting MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who is also the party president, on the same ticket. She polls 40,707 first preference votes (9.6%) but is not elected.

In 2004, Bacik’s book Kicking and Screaming: Dragging Ireland into the 21st Century, is published by The O’Brien Press.

In 2007, she contested the Seanad Éireann elections for the third time in the Dublin University constituency, and is elected to the third seat, behind sitting Independent senators Shane Ross and David Norris. She initially sits as an Independent senator.

In February 2009, Bacik is included in an ‘All Star Women’s Cabinet’ in the Irish Independent. In March 2009, she confirmed claims made on a TV programme that she had taken two voluntary pay cuts of 10% in addition to a pension levy. In June 2009, she is the Labour Party candidate for the Dublin Central by-election. She comes in third with 17% of the first preference votes. She joins the Labour Party group in the Seanad in September 2009, and becomes Labour Party Seanad spokesperson for both Justice and Arts, Sports and Tourism. In November 2009, a feature by Mary Kenny of the Irish Independent includes Bacik in a list of women who “well deserved their iconic status.”

In May 2010, Bacik seeks Labour’s nomination to contest the next election in the Dublin South-East constituency but is not selected. In December 2010, she is added to the ticket as the second candidate beside Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, in the Dún Laoghaire constituency for the 2011 Irish general election. Gilmore tops the poll, with Bacik receiving 10.1% of first preference votes but she is not elected. She is re-elected to Seanad Éireann at the subsequent election, after which she becomes Deputy Leader of the Seanad. She holds her seat in the Seanad in 2016 and in 2020.

On April 27, 2021, after the resignation of Eoghan Murphy from his Dáil seat in Dublin Bay South, Bacik announces her intention to stand in the upcoming by-election. She campaigns with an emphasis on providing affordable housing, as well as improving healthcare and childcare, tackling climate change, and achieving “a true republic in which church and state are separated.” During the campaign, she describes herself as having “more bills passed into law than any other Senator, on issues such as workers’ conditions, women’s health rights, and LGBT equality”. She also campaigns on increasing the number of sports amenities for children in the area, calling for unused Defence Forces football fields at the Cathal Brugha Barracks to be freed up for local sports, with the suggestion rejected by Fine Gael Minister for Defence Simon Coveney. Fine Gael complains to RTÉ after she features prominently on National Treasures, a prime-time TV show broadcast by RTÉ during the campaign. RTÉ has strict rules about fair coverage of candidates during campaigns. The national broadcaster blames an “inadvertent error” for the programme being shown three days before the election. A steering group within the broadcaster tells Fine Gael that “the broadcast should not have happened.” Consequentially, RTÉ has to show a special report on the by-election on Prime Time to “ensure fair coverage is given to all candidates.”

Bacik wins this election, receiving 8,131 (30.2%) first-preference votes. It is her fourth attempt as a Labour candidate, and she expresses her delight at the success at the count centre in the RDS. Following the election, she is described by The Irish Times as “a formidable activist and public intellectual” and that Fine Gael’s perceived antipathy towards their former TD, Kate O’Connell, may have contributed to the surge in support to Bacik from women voters. The newspaper claims that her election is “a long overdue morale boost” for Labour.

In August 2021, Bacik apologises for attending Katherine Zappone‘s controversial party in the Merrion Hotel, Dublin, in July of that year. She states that she believed that it took place within existing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

In March 2022, Bacik confirms she will run to succeed Alan Kelly as Labour Party leader. Kelly states that he believes that Bacik will succeed him. On March 24, 2022, she is confirmed as Labour Party leader unopposed at a party conference in Dublin. In a speech, she says she will focus on the rising cost of living and the serious and global problems facing the country. She pledges that Labour will fight the next election as a “standalone party” rather than joining any left-wing alliance.

At the 2024 Irish general election, Bacik is re-elected to the Dáil.

Bacik lives with husband Alan Saul and their two daughters in Portobello, Dublin.


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Birth of Michael Noonan, Former Fine Gael Politician

Michael Noonan, former Fine Gael politician, is born in Limerick, County Limerick, on May 21, 1943. He has been a member of every Fine Gael cabinet since 1982, serving in the cabinets of Garret FitzGerald, John Bruton and Enda Kenny.

The son of a local school teacher, Noonan is raised in Loughill, County Limerick. He is educated at the local National School and St. Patrick’s Secondary School in Glin, before studying to be a primary school teacher at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin. He subsequently completes a BA and H.Dip. in English and Economics at University College Dublin (UCD). He begins to work as a secondary school teacher in Dublin. He develops an interest in politics from his mother, whose family had been heavily involved in Fine Gael at the local level in Limerick, and joins the Dublin branch of the party after graduating from university.

Having been involved in the local Fine Gael organisation in Limerick since the late 1960s, Noonan first holds political office in 1974, when he is elected as a member of Limerick County Council. Having built up a local profile he contests the 1981 Irish general election for the party and secures a seat in Limerick East. Upon taking his Dáil seat, he becomes a full-time politician, giving up his teaching post and resigning his seat on Limerick County Council. Though Fine Gael forms a coalition government with the Labour Party, as a first time Teachta Dála (TD), he remains on the backbenches. He serves as a TD from 1981 to 2020.

Noonan serves Minister for Justice from 1982 to 1986, Minister for Energy from January 1987 to March 1987, Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1986 to 1987, Minister for Health from 1994 to 1997, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of Fine Gael from 2001 to 2002, and Minister for Finance from 2011 to 2017.

In May 2017, Noonan announces he will be stepping down as Minister for Finance in the coming weeks when a new Taoiseach was appointed, and as a member of the Dáil at the next general election.

Noonan marries Florence Knightley, a native of Castlemaine, County Kerry and a primary school teacher, in 1969. They have three sons (Tim, John and Michael) and two daughters (Orla and Deirdre). In May 2010, Noonan appears on RTÉ‘s The Frontline to talk about his wife’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Florence Noonan dies on February 23, 2012 of pneumonia.


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Death of James Tully, Labour Party Politician & Trade Unionist

James Tully, Irish Labour Party politician and trade unionist, dies in Navan, County Meath, on May 20, 1992. He serves as Minister for Defence from 1981 to 1982, Deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1981 to 1982 and Minister for Local Government from 1973 to 1977. He serves as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Meath constituency from 1954 to 1957 and 1961 to 1982.

A native of Carlanstown, near Kells in the north of County Meath, Tully is educated in Carlanstown schools and in St Patrick’s Classical School in Navan. He is elected to Dáil Éireann as a Labour Party TD for the Meath constituency at the 1954 Irish general election. He loses his seat at the 1957 Irish general election, but is re-elected at the 1961 Irish general election and serves until 1982. When Labour enters into a coalition government with Fine Gael in 1973, he is appointed Minister for Local Government. While serving in that post he gains prominence for a massive increase in the building of public housing, and notoriety for an attempt to gerrymander Irish constituencies to ensure the re-election of the National Coalition at the 1977 Irish general election. His electoral reorganisation effort via the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1974, which comes to be called a “Tullymander,” backfires spectacularly and helps engineer a landslide for the opposition, Fianna Fáil. He is regarded as a conservative within the Labour Party, though tends to support party decisions, even if he disagrees with them. For many years he is opposed to coalition, though finding the years in opposition fruitless, he changes his mind and becomes increasingly in favour of coalition with Fine Gael.

Also as Minister for Local Government, Tully decides on alterations to the plans for the controversial Dublin Corporation Civic Offices.

Tully is appointed deputy leader of the Labour Party under Michael O’Leary in 1981, and Minister for Defence in the short-lived 1981–82 Fine Gael-Labour Party government. In that capacity he travels to Cairo, in 1981, as the Republic of Ireland‘s representative in Egypt‘s annual October 6 military victory parade. While in the reviewing stand, next to President Anwar Sadat, he suffers a shrapnel injury to his face when Sadat was assassinated by members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad who had infiltrated the Egyptian Army.

In 1982, a few months after the event, Tully retires from politics. He dies ten years later, on May 20, 1992, at the age of 76.

(Pictured: Portrait of James Tully taken from his 1954 election poster)


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Birth of Richard Mulcahy, Fine Gael Politician & Army General

Richard James Mulcahy, Irish Fine Gael politician and army general, is born in Manor Street, Waterford, County Waterford, on May 10, 1886, the son of post office clerk Patrick Mulcahy and Elizabeth Slattery. He is educated at Mount Sion Christian Brothers School and later in Thurles, County Tipperary, where his father is the postmaster.

Mulcahy joins the Royal Mail (Post Office Engineering Dept.) in 1902, and works in Thurles, Bantry, Wexford and Dublin. He is a member of the Gaelic League and joins the Irish Volunteers at the time of their formation in 1913. He is also a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

Mulcahy is second-in-command to Thomas Ashe in an encounter with the armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) at Ashbourne, County Meath, during the 1916 Easter Rising, one of the few stand-out victories won by republicans in that week and generally credited to Mulcahy’s grasp of tactics. In his book on the Rising, Charles Townshend principally credits Mulcahy with the defeat of the RIC at Ashbourne, for conceiving and leading a flanking movement on the RIC column that had engaged with the Irish Volunteers. Arrested after the Rising, he is interned at Knutsford and at the Frongoch internment camp in Wales until his release on December 24, 1916.

On his release, Mulcahy immediately rejoins the republican movement and becomes commandant of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. He is elected to the First Dáil in the 1918 Irish general election for Dublin Clontarf. He is then named Minister for Defence in the new government and later Assistant Minister for Defence. In March 1918, he becomes Irish Republican Army (IRA) chief of staff, a position he holds until January 1922.

Mulcahy and Michael Collins are largely responsible for directing the military campaign against the British during the Irish War of Independence. During this period of upheaval in 1919, he marries Mary Josephine (Min) Ryan, sister of Kate and Phyllis Ryan, the successive wives of Seán T. O’Kelly. Her brother is James Ryan. O’Kelly and Ryan both later serve in Fianna Fáil governments.

Mulcahy supports the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. Archive film shows that Mulcahy, as Minister of Defence, is the Irish officer who raises the Irish tricolour at the first hand-over of a British barracks to the National Army in January 1922. He is defence minister in the Provisional Government on its creation and succeeds Collins, after the latter’s assassination, as Commander-in-Chief of the Provisional Government’s forces during the subsequent Irish Civil War.

Mulcahy earns notoriety through his order that anti-Treaty activists captured carrying arms are liable for execution. A total of 77 anti-Treaty prisoners are executed by the Provisional Government. He serves as Minister for Defence in the new Free State government from January 1924 until March 1924, but resigns in protest because of the sacking of the Army Council after criticism by the Executive Council over the handling of the “Army Mutiny,” when some National Army War of Independence officers almost revolt after he demobilises many of them at the end of the Irish Civil War. He re-enters the cabinet as Minister for Local Government and Public Health in 1927.

During Mulcahy’s period on the backbenches of Dáil Éireann his electoral record fluctuates. He is elected as TD for Dublin North-West at the 1921 and 1922 Irish general elections. He moves to Dublin North for the election the following year and is re-elected there in four further elections: June 1927, September 1927, 1932, and 1933.

Dublin North is abolished for the 1937 Irish general election, at which Mulcahy is defeated in the new constituency of Dublin North-East. However, he secures election to Seanad Éireann as a Senator, the upper house of the Oireachtas, representing the Administrative Panel. The 2nd Seanad sits for less than two months, and at the 1938 Irish general election he is elected to the 10th Dáil as a TD for Dublin North-East. Defeated again in the 1943 Irish general election, he secures election to the 4th Seanad by the Labour Panel.

After the resignation of W. T. Cosgrave as Leader of Fine Gael in 1944, Mulcahy becomes party leader while still a member of the Seanad. Thomas F. O’Higgins is parliamentary leader of the party in the Dáil at the time and Leader of the Opposition. Facing his first general election as party leader, Mulcahy draws up a list of 13 young candidates to contest seats for Fine Gael. Of the eight who run, four are elected. He is returned again to the 12th Dáil as a TD for Tipperary at the 1944 Irish general election. While Fine Gael’s decline had been slowed, its future is still in doubt.

Following the 1948 Irish general election Mulcahy is elected for Tipperary South, but the dominant Fianna Fáil party finishes six seats short of a majority. However, it is 37 seats ahead of Fine Gael, and conventional wisdom suggests that Fianna Fáil is the only party that can possibly form a government. Just as negotiations get underway, however, Mulcahy realises that if Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the National Labour Party, Clann na Poblachta and Clann na Talmhan band together, they would have only one seat fewer than Fianna Fáil and, if they can get support from seven independents, they will be able to form a government. He plays a leading role in persuading the other parties to put aside their differences and join forces to consign the then Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Éamon de Valera, to the opposition benches.

Mulcahy initially seems set to become Taoiseach in a coalition government. However, he is not acceptable to Clann na Poblachta’s leader, Seán MacBride. Many Irish republicans had never forgiven him for his role in the Irish Civil War executions carried out under the Cosgrave government in the 1920s. Consequently, MacBride lets it be known that he and his party will not serve under Mulcahy. Without Clann na Poblachta, the other parties would have 57 seats between them — 17 seats short of a majority in the 147-seat Dáil. According to Mulcahy, the suggestion that another person serve as Taoiseach comes from Labour leader William Norton. He steps aside and encourages his party colleague John A. Costello, a former Attorney General of Ireland, to become the parliamentary leader of Fine Gael and the coalition’s candidate for Taoiseach. For the next decade, Costello serves as the party’s parliamentary leader while Mulcahy remained the nominal leader of the party.

Mulcahy goes on to serve as Minister for Education under Costello from 1948 until 1951. Another coalition government comes to power at the 1954 Irish general election, with Mulcahy once again stepping aside to become Minister for Education in the Second Inter-Party Government. The government falls in 1957, but he remains as Fine Gael leader until October 1959. In October the following year, he tells his Tipperary constituents that he does not intend to contest the next election.

Mulcahy dies from natural causes at the age of 85 in Dublin on December 16, 1971. He is buried in Littleton, County Tipperary.


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Birth of Mary Lou McDonald, Current President of Sinn Féin

Mary Louise McDonald, Irish politician and President of Sinn Féin since February 2018, is born in Dublin on May 1, 1969.

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.

McDonald is educated at Rathgar National School and at the Catholic all-girls, Notre Dame des Missions in Churchtown, South Dublin, where she is involved in debating. She then attends Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the University of Limerick and Dublin City University (DCU), studying English Literature, European Integration Studies and Human Resource Management.

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 is an unsuccessful candidate in the Dublin Central constituency at the 2007 Irish general election. In 2009 she becomes the vice president of Sinn Féin.

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.


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Death of William Thrift, Academic & Politician

William Edward Thrift, Irish academic and politician who serves as the 37th Provost of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin University constituency from 1921 to 1937, dies in Dublin, on April 23, 1942.

Thrift was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, on February 28, 1870, one of at least two sons and two daughters of Henry George Thrift, civil servant, and Sarah Anne Thrift (née Smith). The family moves in his childhood to Dublin, where his father is an officer in the Inland Revenue.

He is educated at The High School, Dublin, and enters Trinity College Dublin in 1889 with a second sizarship in mathematics, and commences a highly distinguished university career, scoring firsts in several examinations and winning numerous prizes. Elected fellow in mathematics and experimental science, and in mental and moral philosophy in 1896, he becomes Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at TCD from 1901 to 1929. He is awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) in 1936. He is appointed Provost of Trinity College Dublin in 1937, serving until his death in 1942.

Thrift is also active in politics. He is elected to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland at the 1921 Irish elections, representing the Dublin University constituency. As an independent Unionist, he does not participate in the Second Dáil. He is re-elected for the same constituency at the 1922 Irish general election and becomes a member of the Third Dáil. He is re-elected at the next five general elections until 1937 when he retires from politics.

While rarely speaking on controversial issues, Thrift opposes the 1925 legislation banning divorce, which he describes as an infringement of individual and minority rights, and a betrayal of commitments made by Arthur Griffith during the Anglo-Irish Treaty debates. His capable service on various Dáil committees is recognised by his election as Leas-Ceann Comhairle (deputy speaker). A long-serving council member of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) (1902–42), he is a commissioner of charitable donations and bequests, and financial adviser to the General Synod of the Church of Ireland. He sits on the governing boards of the Erasmus Smith schools and of the Incorporated Society for Promoting Protestant Schools in Ireland.

Thrift’s portrait is painted by Leo Whelan. He marries Etta Robinson, a daughter of C. H. Robinson, a medical doctor, and they have three sons and three daughters. He dies at the provost’s house, Trinity College Dublin, on April 23, 1942. He is buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross, County Dublin.


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Birth of Tim Pat Coogan, Journalist, Writer & Broadcaster

Timothy Patrick “Tim Pat” Coogan, Irish journalist, writer and broadcaster, is born in Monkstown, County Dublin, on April 22, 1935. He serves as editor of The Irish Press newspaper from 1968 to 1987. He is best known for such books as The IRA (1970) and On the Blanket: The H Block Story (1980), and biographies of Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera.

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.”

Coogan is the first of three children born to Beatrice (née Toal) and Eamonn Coogan, a native of Kilkenny who is an Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer during the Irish War of Independence and later serves as the first Deputy Commissioner of the newly established Garda Síochána, then a Fine Gael TD for the Kilkenny constituency. His mother, the daughter of a policeman, is a Dublin socialite who is crowned Dublin’s Civic Queen of Beauty in 1927. She writes for the Evening Herald and takes part in various productions in the Abbey Theatre and Radio Éireann. He spends many summer holidays in the town of Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, his father’s hometown.

A former student of the Irish Christian Brothers in Dún Laoghaire and Belvedere College in Dublin, Coogan spends most of his secondary studies at Blackrock College in Dublin.

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 Taoiseach Enda 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?”

In November 2012, for reasons that are uncertain, the United States embassy in Dublin refuses to grant Coogan a visa to visit the United States. As a result, a planned book tour for his book The Famine Plot, England’s role in Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy (2012) is cancelled. After representations to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by United States Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Congressman Peter T. King (R-NY), he receives his visa.

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).