Frank Aiken

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Frank Aiken ( Irish : Proinsias Mac Aodhagáin ; born February 13, 1898 in Camlough , County Armagh , † May 18, 1983 in Dublin ) was an Irish politician of the Fianna Fáil , deputy prime minister ( Tánaiste ) and long-time foreign minister .

Life

Aiken joined the Irish Volunteers at the age of 16 and the Sinn Féin party a little later . During the Irish War of Independence he was in command of the Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the dispute over the Anglo-Irish Treaty , Aiken joined the party rejecting the treaty. In March 1923 he succeeded Liam Lynch as Chief of Staff of the IRA during the Irish Civil War . In this function, he gave the IRA the order in May 1923 to cease fighting and to deposit the weapons.

Also in 1923, Aiken was elected to the Irish House of Commons, the Dáil Éireann , for Sinn Féin in the Louth constituency. As a Republican , he did not take the seat. From 1927 to 1973 he represented the same constituency as a member of Fianna Fáil.

First he was Minister of Defense from March 1932 to September 1939 and, for a short time, Minister of Lands and Fisheries from June to November 1936 . He was later appointed Minister for Defense Coordination in September 1939 by Prime Minister Eamon de Valera and held this post until the end of the Second World War in June 1945. Subsequently he was Minister of Finance until the Fianna Fáil was defeated in February 1948 .

After his party's renewed election victory, de Valera appointed him foreign minister for the first time from June 1951 to June 1954 . Aiken took over the office of foreign minister again from the Fianna Fáil governments under de Valera, Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch from March 1957 to July 1969. In 1957 he was also Minister of Agriculture twice for a short time. On April 21, 1965 Prime Minister Lemass also appointed him Deputy Prime Minister ( Tánaiste ).

On July 2, 1969, he resigned from the cabinet and was replaced as Tánaiste by Erskine Hamilton Childers and foreign minister by Patrick Hillery .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Irish Ministries
  2. ↑ Foreign Ministers

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Aiken, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Proinsias Mac Aodhagáin (Irish)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Camlough , County Armagh
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1983
Place of death Dublin