Patrick Smith

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the English-US amateur soccer player, coach and soccer referee, see Patrick Smith (referee) .

Patrick "Paddy" Smith ( Irish Pádraig Mac Gabhann , born July 17, 1901 in Cootehill , County Cavan , † March 18, 1982 ) was an Irish politician of the Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil and several ministers.

biography

Smith, who worked as a farmer , began his political career after the end of the Irish Civil War and was elected member of the House of Commons ( Dáil Éireann ) as a representative of the Sinn Féin in 1923 , but did not take his seat in Parliament in protest against the situation after the Civil War . In the next general election in 1927 he was elected as a representative of the Fianna Fáil in the Dáil Éireann and represented there after 15 re-elections until 1977 for fifty years the constituency of Cavan .

On June 27, 1939 he was appointed by Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) Éamon de Valera as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister and thus for the first time a government office. He then was from July 2, 1943 to December 31, 1946 Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, before he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture between January 1 and January 21, 1947.

He then succeeded longtime Agriculture Minister James Ryan on January 22, 1947 as part of a cabinet reshuffle , who in turn became Minister of Health and Minister of Social Welfare. After the electoral defeat of Fianna Fáil against Fine Gael, he left the government on June 18, 1948.

On June 13, 1951, Prime Minister de Valera called him back to the government after the renewed government, where he was Minister for Local Administration until the election was again defeated on June 2, 1954. Finally, he was called back to the government by de Valera even after the election success in 1957, in which he was initially from March 20 to November 27, 1957 Minister for Local Administration and Minister for Social Welfare. He then became Minister of Agriculture again during a government reshuffle and held this position under de Valera's successor Seán Lemass until his resignation on October 8, 1964.

In his last electoral term, after Frank Aiken's departure from 1973 to 1977, he was the last politician who had been a member of the House of Commons without interruption since 1923 and was thus unofficially “Father of the Dáil”. In 1977, the 76-year-old Patrick Smith decided not to run again in the general election and left the Dáil.

Web links

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