Tom O'Donnell

Thomas "Tom" G. O'Donnell ( Irish Tomás Ó Domhnaill ; born August 30, 1926 in Bulgaden, County Limerick ) is a former Irish politician of the Fine Gael .

biography

O'Donnell, who was originally a journalist , began his political career as a candidate for the Fine Gael in 1961 with the first election to the House of Commons ( Dáil Éireann ). There he represented the interests of the constituency of Limerick East after seven subsequent re-elections until 1987 .

After the election of Fine Gael in the 1973 general election, he was appointed Minister for the Irish-speaking territories ( Gaeltacht ) by Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) Liam Cosgrave on March 14, 1973 . He held this position until the end of Cosgrave's tenure on May 25, 1977 after the defeat in the elections for Dáil Éireann.

After the death of President Erskine Hamilton Childers on November 17, 1974, the deafness of O'Donnell caused a scandal. Originally, all parties secretly agreed to nominate his widow Rita Childers as Childer's successor; but before this was announced, and even before she was told, a misunderstanding broke the agreement. Tom O'Donnell misunderstood a journalist's question about the alleged nomination of Mrs. Childers. He thought the journalist already knew about the nomination and confirmed that Rita Childers would become the new President of Ireland. The opposition of Fianna Fáil , in the opinion that the whole mess was staged by the government and wanted to beat these political advantages thereof, thereupon withdrew from the agreement.

In 1979 he was also elected a member of the 1st European Parliament . O'Donnell was also a member of the European Parliament during the second parliamentary term . In 1987 he suffered an election defeat and resigned not only from the Dáil Éireann, but also from the European Parliament.

Web links

• Homepage of the Oireachtas
• Irish Ministeries (rulers.org)
• Entry on Tom O'Donnell in the European Parliament 's database of MEPs