Neil Blaney facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Neil Blaney
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Blaney in 1990
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| Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries | |
| In office 11 November 1966 – 7 May 1970 |
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| Taoiseach | Jack Lynch |
| Preceded by | Charles Haughey |
| Succeeded by | Jim Gibbons |
| Minister for Local Government | |
| In office 27 November 1957 – 10 November 1966 |
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| Taoiseach | Seán Lemass |
| Preceded by | Paddy Smith |
| Succeeded by | Kevin Boland |
| Minister for Posts and Telegraphs | |
| In office 20 March 1957 – 4 December 1957 |
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| Taoiseach | Seán Lemass |
| Preceded by | Michael Keyes |
| Succeeded by | John Ormonde |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office June 1977 – June 1981 |
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| Constituency | Donegal |
| In office June 1981 – 8 November 1995 |
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| In office October 1961 – June 1977 |
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| Constituency | Donegal North-East |
| In office December 1948 – October 1961 |
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| Constituency | Donegal East |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office June 1989 – June 1994 |
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| In office June 1979 – June 1984 |
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| Constituency | Connacht–Ulster |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 October 1922 Fanad, County Donegal, Ireland |
| Died | 8 November 1995 (aged 73) Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party |
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| Spouse | Eva Corduff |
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Neil Terence Columba Blaney (born October 1, 1922 – died November 8, 1995) was an important Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann, which is the main parliament in Ireland, in 1948. He represented the Donegal East area as a member of the Fianna Fáil political party.
Neil Blaney was a very well-known member of his party. He served as a government minister many times. He was the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in 1957. Then, he became the Minister for Local Government from 1957 to 1966. Later, he was the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries from 1966 to 1970.
In 1970, his political journey changed a lot because of an event called the Arms Crisis. Even though he was later found not guilty in court, this event led to him losing his minister roles. He was also asked to leave the Fianna Fáil party. Despite this, Neil Blaney was a determined politician. He managed to keep his seat in Donegal and continued to be a member of parliament for twenty more years. He ran under the name "Independent Fianna Fáil". Besides being a member of the Irish parliament, he also became a member of the European Parliament in 1979. Neil Blaney held both of these important positions when he passed away in 1995. He started his career as the youngest member of the Dáil and finished as the oldest.
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Neil Blaney's Early Life and Family
Neil Blaney was born in 1922 in a small village called Rossnakill. This village is located in the beautiful Fanad Peninsula in the north of County Donegal, Ireland. He was the second oldest of eleven children in his family.
His father, Neal Blaney, was a leader in the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the War of Independence and the Civil War. Neil's father also served as a member of parliament (TD) and a Senator from 1927 until 1948. After his father's death, Neil Blaney took over his role in politics. Neil learned his strong republican beliefs and first got involved in politics from his father. He went to school locally in Tamney and later attended St Eunan's College in Letterkenny. Before becoming a politician, Neil Blaney worked as an organiser for a group called the Irish National Vintners and Grocers Association.
Starting His Political Journey
Neil Blaney was first elected to Dáil Éireann in December 1948. This happened in a special election, called a by-election, for the Donegal East area. He was elected after his father passed away. At the time he was elected, Neil Blaney was the youngest member of the Dáil. He also became a member of the Donegal County Council.
For several years, he worked as a regular member of parliament. Then, after the Fianna Fáil party lost the 1954 general election, a group of young members, including Blaney, were chosen by Seán Lemass to help reorganise the party. Neil Blaney became well-known in the party for leading successful election campaigns throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He introduced new ways of campaigning, like parades of cars and bonfires by the roadside after his election wins. These ideas were new to Irish politics back then. He also started wearing sunglasses, chewing gum, and bright ties, which made him stand out. His loyal supporters were even nicknamed 'the Donegal Mafia'. They helped other politicians like Des O'Malley and Gerry Collins get elected.
Important Government Roles
After Fianna Fáil won the 1957 general election, Éamon de Valera, who was the Taoiseach (Ireland's Prime Minister), brought new people into his government. Neil Blaney was one of them, along with Jack Lynch, Kevin Boland, and Mícheál Ó Móráin. Blaney was first made Minister for Posts and Telegraphs. This made him the first government minister ever from Donegal.
However, he soon moved to the role of Minister for Local Government at the end of 1957. This happened after another minister, Seán Moylan, passed away. Neil Blaney was a very creative minister. One of his first big tasks was to prepare for a referendum. This was a public vote to change the voting system from proportional representation to first-past-the-post voting. However, the public did not approve this change.
Even so, Blaney kept his position when Seán Lemass became Taoiseach in 1959. In 1963, he introduced the Planning Act. This law helped to organise planning rules across all local areas in Ireland. It also created a new agency, An Forás Forbatha, to bring together planning experts. His department also worked on a huge project to bring piped water to homes in rural areas. In 1965, Blaney introduced the Road Traffic Act. This law made it necessary for drivers to take a driving test in cars that were safe to drive. During his time as minister, people could also pay their property taxes (called rates) in smaller payments. He also introduced a law that allowed people who were not Irish citizens to vote in local elections.
In 1966, Seán Lemass stepped down as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil. There was an election to choose a new leader. George Colley and Charles Haughey were the main candidates. Neil Blaney was not happy with these choices. With support from Kevin Boland, he decided to run himself, calling himself the "Radical Republican" candidate. But he didn't get much support outside of his home area. After some pressure from Lemass, Jack Lynch joined the race and was seen as the strongest candidate. Haughey and Boland then supported Lynch, but Colley still went ahead with the election. Lynch won easily, becoming the new party leader and Taoiseach. In the changes to the government that followed, Neil Blaney was appointed Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries.
The Arms Crisis and Its Impact
In 1969, when conflict began in Northern Ireland, Neil Blaney was one of the first politicians to speak strongly in support of people in Northern Ireland who identified as Irish nationalists. His views were different from the official policy of the Irish Government. Blaney was from Ulster, the same province as Northern Ireland, and he was concerned about the situation there. He worried about the people in West Tyrone and Derry, areas close to his own constituency.
Around late 1968, Blaney started an unofficial group of politicians in Leinster House (where the Irish parliament meets). This group was known as 'the Letterkenny Table' because they met at a specific table. Blaney was the main leader of this group until his death. He was also part of a small group of four government ministers, including Charles Haughey, Pádraig Faulkner, and Joseph Brennan. This group was set up to decide the government's policy towards Northern Ireland. A fund of £100,000 was created to help the nationalist people there. However, those involved have always said that the government did not support bringing in weapons.
There was a big surprise when Neil Blaney, along with Charles Haughey, was removed from Taoiseach Jack Lynch's government. This happened during an event known as the Arms Crisis. There were claims that government funds were used to bring in weapons for a new group called the Provisional IRA. The leader of the opposition, Liam Cosgrave, was told by the police (the Garda) that there was a plan to import weapons and that government members were involved. Cosgrave told Lynch he knew about the plan and would announce it in parliament the next day if Lynch didn't act.
Lynch then asked Haughey and Blaney to resign. Both refused, saying they had done nothing wrong. So, Lynch advised President de Valera to remove Haughey and Blaney from the government. Kevin Boland resigned in support of them. Another minister, Mícheál Ó Móráin, was dismissed a day earlier to make sure he wasn't the Minister for Justice when the crisis became public. Lynch chose Des O'Malley for that role.
Haughey and Blaney were later put on trial in court. An army officer, Captain James Kelly, and a Belgian businessman named Albert Luykx were also tried. They were accused of using their contacts to buy weapons. At the trial, all the accused were found not guilty. However, many of their critics did not accept this court decision. Even though Neil Blaney was cleared of any wrongdoing, his career as a government minister ended.
After the trial, Jack Lynch worked to isolate Blaney within the Fianna Fáil party. Blaney lost a vote for a party position to George Colley in 1971. His colleague from his constituency, Liam Cunningham, was given a government role. In parliament, Blaney did not vote on a motion that questioned if minister Jim Gibbons was fit for office. Two other politicians, Paudge Brennan and Des Foley, also did the same. Even though the government survived, all three were removed from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary group. When Blaney and his supporters tried to organise the party's fundraising on their own, Lynch acted. In 1972, Neil Blaney was officially expelled from the Fianna Fáil party for "conduct unbecoming."
Becoming an Independent Politician
After he was expelled from Fianna Fáil, Kevin Boland tried to convince Neil Blaney to join his new party, Aontacht Éireann. But Blaney decided not to. Instead, he ran in all future elections for a group he built up called Independent Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party. This group was mostly made up of former Fianna Fáil members in County Donegal who stayed loyal to him, along with many republicans. Throughout the 1970s, many people called for him to be allowed back into Fianna Fáil. However, the strongest opposition to this idea came from Fianna Fáil members in County Donegal itself.
European Parliament Work
In the 1979 European elections, Neil Blaney received the most votes in the Connacht–Ulster area. This was a surprise to Fianna Fáil. He joined a group in the European Parliament called the Technical Group of Independents. He even served as a leader of this group alongside Marco Pannella from Italy and Jens-Peter Bonde from Denmark. He just barely lost his seat in the 1984 election. However, he was elected again as an MEP in the 1989 election. This time, he joined the regionalist Rainbow Group. He also supported IRA candidate Bobby Sands in a special election in April 1981, where Sands was elected to the Westminster parliament.
His Last Years and Family Legacy
Neil Blaney became ill with cancer and passed away at the age of 73 on November 8, 1995. He held his seat in the Dáil until his death. At that time, he was the longest-serving member of the Dáil, known as the Father of the Dáil. He died at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin.
After his death, a special election was held on April 2, 1996. The Fianna Fáil party won back the seat. However, Neil Blaney's brother, Harry Blaney, was elected as an Independent Fianna Fáil member of parliament in the 1997 general election. Harry was later replaced by his son, Niall Blaney, who was elected in the 2002 general election. But in July 2006, Niall rejoined Fianna Fáil. This decision was not supported by other members of the Blaney family, including all seven of Neil Blaney's children and his wife, Eva. They released a statement before Niall Blaney's decision, criticising the Fianna Fáil party and saying they did not agree with any "truce" with them.
A road in Letterkenny is named the Neil T. Blaney Road in his honour.
See also
- Families in the Oireachtas
