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Owen O’Shea, from Milltown, Co. Kerry, is Communications Officer with Kerry County Council. A former Labour Party press officer and election candidate, he was a journalist with Kerry’s Eye and Radio Kerry. He is the author of Heirs to the Kingdom: Kerry’s Political Dynasties (2011).
Gordon Revington is a journalist with Kerry’s Eye, who writes on Irish political history, rural affairs and sport. He contributed to Kerry 1916: Histories and Legacies of the Easter Rising – A Centenary Record (2016).
OWEN O’SHEA AND GORDON REVINGTON
First published in 2018 by
Merrion Press
An imprint of Irish Academic Press
10 George’s Street
Newbridge
Co. Kildare
Ireland
© Owen O’Shea & Gordon Revington, 2018
9781785372018 (Paper)
9781785372025 (Kindle)
9781785372032 (Epub)
9781785372049 (PDF)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Interior design by www.jminfotechindia.com
Typeset in Minion Pro 11/14 pt
Cover design by www.phoenix-graphicdesign.com
Front cover, top left: Leader of the Labour Party Dick Spring and deputy leader Barry Desmond at the party’s press conference, 10 Nov. 1982 (photograph: Paddy Whelan/The Irish Times). Top right: Kerry South TDs John O’Donoghue and Jackie Healy-Rae share a joke at the counting of votes at the 2007 general election (Kerry’s Eye). Bottom: Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey enjoys a cup of tea while campaigning in Killarney in 1982, pictured with, l–r: Senator Tom Fitzgerald, John O’Leary TD, John O’Donoghue, John Buckley (Killarney Bakery), and Cllr Jackie Healy-Rae (behind Haughey) (Michelle Cooper-Galvin).
Back cover, clockwise from top left: Clann na Poblachta TD Kathleen O’Connor (right) following her election in Feb. 1956, with her mother, Catherine O’Connor, and Clann na Poblachta leader Seán Mac Bride TD (Brian Fitzgerald). Austin Stack TD. Catherine (Kit) Ahern TD. Checking the ballots at the counting of votes in Kerry North at the 1969 general election, including Anna Spring, Tom McEllistrim TD (FF) and Gerard Lynch TD (FG) (The Kerryman). Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald with supporters during the February 1982 election campaign (The Kerryman/Kevin Coleman).
Contents
1. ‘Ireland must be governed by Irishmen for Ireland’s benefit’
Murphy and O’Sullivan: The Bitterest of Political Rivals
3. ‘Castleisland swam in porter … and drunkenness prevailed’
The Councillor Unseated for Plying Voters with Drink
4. ‘Struck him violently in the mouth’
The Kerry TD Who Punched a Colleague in the Dáil Dining Room
‘The Queen of Balochistan’: The Tarbert woman elected to the Pakistani Parliament
Kerry’s Original Political Power Couple
6. ‘If there are women candidates, we hope they will be of the right kind’
The Fate of Kerry’s Women Politicians
‘Why are all the people talking about Dick Spring, Mammy?’: The Tánaiste and the night of the four votes
7. ‘We must not expect great things of Miss O’Connor in the Dáil’
The Kerry North TD Who Was Too Young To Vote for Herself
8. ‘The man who sits in the chair is not a proper or suitable man’
The Highs and Lows of Local Authority Politics in Kerry since
‘Single-minded pursuit of his objectives’: Kerry’s pioneering education minister
9. ‘Three weeks’ turmoil, agitation and disturbance’
