Michael McDowell (politician) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael McDowell
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McDowell in 2024
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| Senator | |
| Assumed office 8 June 2016 |
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| Constituency | National University |
| Tánaiste | |
| In office 13 September 2006 – 14 June 2007 |
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| Taoiseach | Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by | Mary Harney |
| Succeeded by | Brian Cowen |
| Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform | |
| In office 6 June 2002 – 14 June 2007 |
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| Taoiseach | Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by | John O'Donoghue |
| Succeeded by | Brian Lenihan |
| Leader of the Progressive Democrats | |
| In office 11 September 2006 – 25 May 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Mary Harney |
| Succeeded by | Mary Harney |
| 27th Attorney General of Ireland | |
| In office 17 July 1999 – 6 June 2002 |
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| Taoiseach | Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by | David Byrne |
| Succeeded by | Rory Brady |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office May 2002 – May 2007 |
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| In office November 1992 – June 1997 |
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| In office February 1987 – June 1989 |
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| Constituency | Dublin South-East |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 May 1951 Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Independent (2009–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
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| Spouse |
Niamh Brennan
(m. 1979) |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Gonzaga College |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service |  Army Reserve |
| Years of service | 1970–1981 |
Michael McDowell (born 1 May 1951) is an Irish independent politician and barrister. Active in Irish politics since the 1980s, he currently serves in Seanad Éireann as a senator for the National University constituency.
A grandson of Irish revolutionary Eoin MacNeill, McDowell was educated at Gonzaga College and studied law at University College Dublin and King's Inns. He began practicing as a barrister in 1974, becoming a senior counsel in 1987. Initially a member of Fine Gael, he co-founded the Progressive Democrats in the mid-1980s and was elected three times as a TD for the Dublin South-East constituency, serving in the 25th Dáil (1987–1989), the 27th Dáil (1992–1997), and the 29th Dáil (2002–2007). He served as Attorney General of Ireland from 1999 to 2002 and as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform from 2002 to 2007.
After Mary Harney resigned as leader of the Progressive Democrats in September 2006, McDowell became party leader and Tánaiste. He led the party into the 2007 general election, where it lost six of its eight seats in Dáil Éireann, including his own. McDowell resigned immediately as party leader—his brief tenure having made him the shortest-serving party leader in the history of the state—and left public life to resume his private legal career. The Progressive Democrats were formally dissolved in 2009. McDowell returned to politics as an independent in 2016 and was elected to Seanad Éireann, to which he was re-elected in 2020. He was regarded as instrumental in opposing the March 2024 constitutional referendums on Family and Care, both of which were comprehensively defeated.
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Early life
Born in Dublin, he was educated at the Jesuit school Gonzaga College, then at University College Dublin where he became auditor of the UCD Law Society. He later attended the King's Inns in Dublin where he achieved the Barrister-at-Law degree in 1974. McDowell was a junior counsel on the legal team that defended the murderer Malcolm MacArthur in the notorious GUBU case. In 2002, McDowell excused himself from considering MacArthur's parole report, to avoid any possible conflict of interest arising from this representation. He was appointed a Senior Counsel in 1987. He became involved in politics, initially supporting Fine Gael. When Desmond O'Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 1985, McDowell immediately wrote to him in support, and ended up becoming one of the people who helped him establish the Progressive Democrats. He is the husband of UCD accountancy Professor Niamh Brennan and brother of UCD economics lecturer Moore McDowell.
Political career
He became involved in politics, initially as a member of Fine Gael. He contested the 1979 Dublin Corporation election, coming 5th in the 4-seat Area 10 (Mansion House/Pembroke).
When Desmond O'Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 1985, McDowell immediately wrote to him in support, becoming a founding member of the Progressive Democrats (the PDs). McDowell was one of 14 PDs elected as TDs to the 25th Dáil at the 1987 general election, the first election after the party was founded. He was elected for the Dublin South-East constituency. He lost his seat at the 1989 general election but was made chairman of the party. McDowell regained his seat at the 1992 general election but lost it again at the 1997 general election. At various times, he served as a member of the Progressive Democrats front bench in roles as spokesman for foreign affairs, Northern Ireland and finance. In July 1999, while the PDs were in a coalition government with Fianna Fáil, McDowell was appointed Attorney General of Ireland, a position he held until 2002. In 2000, he proposed changing the name of the party to the Radical Party.
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform
Following the 2002 general election, McDowell regained his Dáil seat. This was the first time McDowell combined winning a Dáil seat with his party's entry into government. He was appointed to the cabinet as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. He was a strong opponent of the policies of Sinn Féin and the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and often took a harder line than his coalition partners, Fianna Fáil. He was named as Politician of the Year for 2004 in the Magill magazine annual awards.
In 2005, he announced plans to introduce Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, although not in the same form as those in Britain. McDowell's Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003 prohibited cut-price drinks promotions and placed restrictions on alcohol advertising, as well as making it mandatory for under-21s to have proof of age when drinking in pubs. This law also banned under-18s from pubs after 9 p.m., a regulation that was highly unpopular and was later relaxed to 10pm during the summer months. In 2005, McDowell proposed to grant licences for café-bars which would have a limited capacity and serve meals as well as alcohol. ..... This initiative was dropped owing to objections from publicans and members of his coalition partners, Fianna Fáil.
In 2004, he proposed a citizenship referendum to end the automatic right to Irish citizenship for those born on the island of Ireland. The referendum was passed with an 80% majority. The referendum was criticised by the some in the opposition, who accused McDowell of pandering to racist elements. He reformed the private security industry, regulating it for the first time under the Private Security Services Act 2004 and establishing the Private Security Authority.
McDowell launched far-reaching reforms of the Garda Síochána and introduced severe penalties (up to five years in jail) for Gardaí who leaked information under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, after the force was extensively criticised by the Morris and Barr Tribunals and he was embarrassed by high-profile leaks of his plans for the force to newspapers from high-level Gardaí. He also introduced a voluntary ancillary branch of the police force despite huge resistance from paid employees. McDowell's Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act, 2005 on telecommunications data retention compels service providers to store all telephone, SMS and internet records for three years and provide them to Gardaí on request. The Digital Rights Ireland campaign group has filed a suit against the government in the High Court claiming that this law is a breach of the constitutional right to privacy.
His Defamation Bill of 2006 proposed a radical reform of Irish defamation law, replacing the torts of libel and slander with one single offence of "defamation" and allowing the press to plead "fair and reasonable publication" as a defence in defamation cases. Related to the defamation reforms, McDowell also proposed a new privacy law which was heavily criticised by the newspaper industry. In 2006, he established the Balance in Criminal Law Review Group, and in 2007 oversaw the enactment of their recommendation to roll back the right to silence.
Party leadership
In June 2006, McDowell was involved in a leadership dispute with party leader Mary Harney, over an alleged promise by Harney to step down in favour of him. The dispute appeared to have been resolved with Harney remaining as leader. On 7 September 2006, Mary Harney unexpectedly resigned as party leader and McDowell became the favourite to succeed her in the consequent leadership election. Irish media reported on 10 September 2006 that Michael McDowell would be the sole nominee for party leadership, Liz O'Donnell would become Deputy Leader and that Tom Parlon would become Party President. On 11 September 2006 McDowell was confirmed as party leader and on 13 September 2006, he was appointed Tánaiste.
2007 general election and resignation as party leader
During the 2007 general election campaign, the Progressive Democrats erected posters bearing the slogan, "Left wing government? No thanks". This was an echo of their 2002 election campaign when they issued posters bearing the slogan; "One party government? No thanks" which then targeted Fianna Fáil. In 2007 their target was the Green Party. While McDowell was unveiling the poster during a press briefing in Ranelagh which was the site of his telegraph pole climb in the 2002 election; constituency opponent John Gormley of the Green party turned up to confront McDowell on the issue of an accompanying pamphlet which made misleading claims about the Green party. The ensuing exchange between them was dubbed the Rumble in Ranelagh by the media. During the 2007 RTÉ Television election debate, McDowell remarked on the state of the opposition parties: "I'm surrounded by the left, the hard-left and the left-overs."
Despite being a high-profile party leader, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, McDowell's vote dropped from 6,093 (18.8%) in the 2002 general election to 4,450 (13.2%) in the 2007 general election. He was beaten for the last seat in the Dublin South-East constituency by John Gormley by a margin of 304 votes. He was the first sitting Tánaiste to lose his seat, and his subsequent departure from politics makes him the "shortest-serving political-party leader in the history of the State". He stated that his time as a public representative was over. On 25 May 2007, McDowell resigned as leader of the Progressive Democrats and announced that he was quitting politics, immediately and without consultation with his party colleagues, after losing his seat in the Dublin South-East constituency in the general election, while the party fell from eight seats to two.
The reaction of the press was divided:
The then Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin, said he was sad to learn of his cabinet colleague's decision to resign. He said "he will be a significant loss" and called him a very formidable parliamentarian.
Election to Seanad Éireann
In 2016, McDowell stood for election to Seanad Éireann for the National University constituency. He was elected on the 26th count. He was re-elected to the Seanad in 2020.
2024 constitutional referendums on Family and Care
McDowell opposed two proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ireland, the Thirty-ninth Amendment on the Family, which proposed to expand the constitutional definition of family to include durable relationships outside marriage, and the Fortieth Amendment on Care, which proposed to replace references to women's "life within the home" and the constitutional obligation to "endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home” with a new article on supporting care within the family.
Prior to the 2024 Irish constitutional referendums, McDowell formed an ad hoc group of barristers, Lawyers for No, to voice concern about the potential legal consequences—in areas including family law, tax law, and succession rights—of the proposed amendments. The group also included Michael McNamara, Brenda Power, and Maria Steen. Despite having the political support of all major political parties, both proposed amendments were comprehensively rejected, respectively by 67.7 and 73.9 percent of voters. McDowell was regarded as having played an instrumental role in the outcome.
Legal career
After losing his Dáil seat, McDowell returned to work as a senior counsel. In addition, he receives annual pension payments of €60,388, which he donates to charity. He represented the Irish Recorded Music Association in their case to force Eircom and UPC to filter their customers' Internet access and in some cases cut off their access completely.
Views
On 21 July 2010 McDowell suggested at the McGill Summer School that The Twelfth - 12 July, celebrated by Northern Ireland Protestants in commemoration of the Battle of Aughrim (1691) and Battle of the Boyne (1690) should be a public holiday in Ireland. He writes a weekly column for The Irish Times.
