Kevin Boland

Kevin Boland ( Irish : Caoimhín Ó Beolláin ; born October 15, 1917 in Dublin ; † September 23, 2001 ibid) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who was a member of the House of Commons ( Dáil Éireann ) and several times minister from 1957 to 1970 . After leaving the Fianna Fáil, he was founding chairman of the Aontacht Éireann party from 1971 to 1976 .

Life

MP and Minister

Boland came from a family of politicians. His father Gerald Boland was a co-founder of the Fianna Fáil and also a member of the Dáil Éireann and several times minister, while his uncle Harry Boland was chairman of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a member of the Dáil Éireann for several years.

He was after a study first as a civil engineer working and began his political career as a candidate of Fianna Fáil in the elections on May 30, 1951 and on May 14, 1954 in the constituency of Dublin County when he unsuccessfully ran for each mandate in the House. In the following March 5, 1957 he was then elected for the first time as a member of the Dáil Éireann and represented this now after his re-elections on October 4, 1961 and April 7, 1965 initially the constituency of Dublin County . In the elections of June 18, 1969 he was finally re-elected in the constituency of Dublin County South as a member of the House of Commons, to which he belonged until his resignation on November 4, 1970.

After his first election as MP, he was appointed Minister of Defense by Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) Éamon de Valera on March 20, 1957 and held this office under de Valera's successor Seán Lemass until October 11, 1961. Lemass appointed him as part of a government reshuffle then Minister of Social Welfare and held that post until the end of Lemass' term on November 10, 1966.

His successor as Taoiseach, Jack Lynch , first appointed him Minister for Local Administration before he became Minister for Local Administration and Minister for Social Welfare in a further cabinet reshuffle on June 18, 1969. He resigned from these government offices on May 5, 1970. The reason for his resignation was to protest against Prime Minister Lynch's dismissal of Treasury Secretary Charles J. Haughey and Agriculture Secretary Neil Blaney over the so-called Irish arms crisis . On November 4, 1970, he also resigned from the House of Commons.

Leaving Fianna Fáil and chairing the Aontacht Éireann

Shortly afterwards he stepped out of the Fianna Fáil and instead founded the Aontacht Éireann ( Irish unit ) in 1971 , which, however, only got 1 percent of the vote nationwide in the following elections. Boland remained party chairman of the Aontacht Éireann, which was finally dissolved in 1984, until 1976.

As such, he ran for the party each without success in the elections of February 28, 1973 in his previous constituency Dublin County South at the death of and on June 10, 1976 Noel Lemass Jr. made necessary by-election ( election by- ) in the constituency of Dublin South West , which was won by Brendan Halligan of the Irish Labor Party (ILP).

After the dissolution of the Aontacht Éireann, Boland applied in the elections of June 11, 1981 as a non-party in the constituency of Dublin South West for re-entry into the Dáil Éireann, but was defeated again this time. Most recently, he ran for a seat in the European Parliament for the electoral region of Leinster in the European elections in 1989, also without success .

Web links

• Homepage of the Oireachtas
• Entry on electionsireland.org
• Irish Ministeries (rulers.org)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gerald Boland on the Oireachtas page
2. ↑ Gerald Boland at electionsireland.org
3. ↑ Harry Boland on the Oireachta's side
4. ↑ Harry Boland on electionsireland.org