Seán Lemass
Seán Francis Lemass was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1959 to 1966. He served as Tánaiste from 1957 to 1959, 1951 to 1954 and 1945 to 1948, Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1957 to 1959, 1951 to 1954, 1945 to 1949 and 1932 to 1939 and Minister for Supplies from 1939 to 1945, he served as a Teachta Dála from 1924 to 1969. A veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War, Lemass was first elected as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for the Dublin South constituency in a by-election on 18 November 1924 and was returned at each election until the constituency was abolished in 1948, when he was re-elected for Dublin South-Central until his retirement in 1969, he was a founder-member of Fianna Fáil in 1926, served as Minister for Industry and Commerce, Minister for Supplies and Tánaiste in successive Fianna Fáil governments. Lemass is regarded as the father of modern Ireland due to his efforts in facilitating industrial growth, bringing foreign direct investment into the country, forging permanent links between Ireland and the European community.
One of the most important modernizing reforms during Lemass's tenure was the introduction of free secondary education, an initiative that took effect shortly after Lemass retired as Taoiseach. Lemass was born in Ballybrack, before his family moved to Capel Street in Dublin city centre, he was of French Huguenot descent and was the second of seven children born to John and Frances Lemass. Within the family his name soon changed to Jack and after 1916, he himself preferred to be called Seán, he was educated at O'Connell School. One of Lemass's classmates was the popular Irish comedian Jimmy O'Dea. Another friend during his youth was Tom Farquharson, who went on to play as a goalkeeper for Cardiff City. In January 1915, Lemass was persuaded to join the Irish Volunteers, his mature looks ensured. Lemass became a member of the A Company of the 3rd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade; the battalion adjutant was Éamon de Valera, future President of Ireland. While out on a journey in the Dublin mountains during Easter 1916, Lemass and his brother Noel met two sons of Professor Eoin MacNeill.
They informed the Lemasses of the Easter Rising, taking place in the city. On Tuesday 25 April, Seán and Noel Lemass were allowed to join the Volunteer garrison at the General Post Office. Lemass was positioned on the roof, he was involved in fighting on Moore Street. However, by Friday the Rising had ended in failure and all involved were imprisoned. Lemass was held for a month in Richmond Barracks, due to his age he was released from the 1,783 that were arrested. Following this, Lemass's father wanted his son to continue with his studies and be called to the Irish Bar. Three of Lemass's brothers died while young; when he was 16, Lemass killed his own baby brother, aged twenty-two months, in a domestic shooting accident with a revolver on 28 January 1916. His older brother, Noel, an anti-Treaty officer, was abducted in June 1923 and murdered the following October, when he was 25. Another of Lemass's brothers, died of natural causes at the age of 19 in 1926. Following the Easter Rising, Lemass remained active in the Irish Volunteers, carrying out raids for arms.
Until November 1920, Lemass remained a part-time member of the Volunteers. In that month, during the height of the Irish War of Independence, twelve members of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA took part in an attack on British agents living in Dublin, whose names and addresses had been leaked to Collins by his network of spies; the group was under the leadership of Michael Collins. The names of those who carried out Collins' orders on the morning of 21 November 1920 were not disclosed until author Tim Pat Coogan mentioned them in his book on the history of the IRA, published in 1970. Coogan identified Lemass as taking part in the killing of a British agent as a member of "Apostles" entourage that killed fourteen and wounded five British agents of the Cairo Gang; that day, 21 November 1920, became known as Bloody Sunday. Lemass was interned at Ballykinlar Camp, County Down. In December 1921, after the signing of Anglo-Irish Treaty, Lemass was released, he became a training officer for a period in Beggars Bush Barracks before the IRA split and was involved in the Belfast Boycott operations.
During the debates of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, Lemass was one of the minority who opposed it along with de Valera. As a protest all the anti-Treaty side withdrew from the Dáil. In the Irish Civil War which followed Lemass was adjutant and second in command to Rory O'Connor, when the group seized the Four Courts, the home of the High Court of Ireland; the occupation of the Four Courts resulted in the outbreak of Civil War, under British pressure, the Free State side shelled the building on 28 June 1922. As a result, fighting broke out in Dublin between pro and anti Treaty factions; the Four Courts surrendered after two days bombardment, however Lemass escaped with Ernie O'Malley and some others to Blessington. Their Flying Column operated in Enniscorthy, Ferns and Borris before the Column was broken up. Lemass and O'Malley returned to Dublin along with Thomas Derrig as a member of the IRA Eastern Command Headquarters but was captured in December 1922 and interned again. In June 1923, after the end of the civil war, Seán Lemass's brother Noel Lemass, an anti-Treaty IRA of
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares a border to the west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2011, its population was 1,810,863, constituting about 30% of the island's total population and about 3% of the UK's population. Established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Assembly holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the British government. Northern Ireland co-operates with the Republic of Ireland in some areas, the Agreement granted the Republic the ability to "put forward views and proposals" with "determined efforts to resolve disagreements between the two governments". Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Unlike Southern Ireland, which would become the Irish Free State in 1922, the majority of Northern Ireland's population were unionists, who wanted to remain within the United Kingdom.
Most of these were the Protestant descendants of colonists from Great Britain. However, a significant minority Catholics, were nationalists who wanted a united Ireland independent of British rule. Today, the former see themselves as British and the latter see themselves as Irish, while a distinct Northern Irish or Ulster identity is claimed both by a large minority of Catholics and Protestants and by many of those who are non-aligned. For most of the 20th century, when it came into existence, Northern Ireland was marked by discrimination and hostility between these two sides in what First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble, called a "cold house" for Catholics. In the late 1960s, conflict between state forces and chiefly Protestant unionists on the one hand, chiefly Catholic nationalists on the other, erupted into three decades of violence known as the Troubles, which claimed over 3,500 lives and caused over 50,000 casualties; the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a major step in the peace process, including the decommissioning of weapons, although sectarianism and religious segregation still remain major social problems, sporadic violence has continued.
Northern Ireland has been the most industrialised region of Ireland. After declining as a result of the political and social turmoil of the Troubles, its economy has grown since the late 1990s; the initial growth came from the "peace dividend" and the links which increased trade with the Republic of Ireland, continuing with a significant increase in tourism and business from around the world. Unemployment in Northern Ireland peaked at 17.2% in 1986, dropping to 6.1% for June–August 2014 and down by 1.2 percentage points over the year, similar to the UK figure of 6.2%. 58.2% of those unemployed had been unemployed for over a year. Prominent artists and sportspeople from Northern Ireland include Van Morrison, Rory McIlroy, Joey Dunlop, Wayne McCullough and George Best; some people from Northern Ireland prefer to identify as Irish while others prefer to identify as British. Cultural links between Northern Ireland, the rest of Ireland, the rest of the UK are complex, with Northern Ireland sharing both the culture of Ireland and the culture of the United Kingdom.
In many sports, the island of Ireland fields a single team, a notable exception being association football. Northern Ireland competes separately at the Commonwealth Games, people from Northern Ireland may compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympic Games; the region, now Northern Ireland was the bedrock of the Irish war of resistance against English programmes of colonialism in the late 16th century. The English-controlled Kingdom of Ireland had been declared by the English king Henry VIII in 1542, but Irish resistance made English control fragmentary. Following Irish defeat at the Battle of Kinsale, the region's Gaelic, Roman Catholic aristocracy fled to continental Europe in 1607 and the region became subject to major programmes of colonialism by Protestant English and Scottish settlers. A rebellion in 1641 by Irish aristocrats against English rule resulted in a massacre of settlers in Ulster in the context of a war breaking out between England and Ireland fuelled by religious intolerance in government.
Victories by English forces in that war and further Protestant victories in the Williamite War in Ireland toward the close of the 17th century solidified Anglican rule in Ireland. In Northern Ireland, the victories of the Siege of Derry and the Battle of the Boyne in this latter war are still celebrated by some Protestants. Popes Innocent XI and Alexander VIII had supported William of Orange instead of his maternal uncle and father-in-law James II, despite William being Protestant and James a Catholic, due to William's participation in alliance with both Protesant and Catholic powers in Europe in wars against Louis XIV, the powerful King of France, in conflict with the papacy for decades. In 1693, Pope Innocent XII recognised James as continuing King of Great Britain and Ireland in place of William, after reconciliation with Louis. In 1695, contrary to the terms of the Treaty of Limerick, a series of penal laws were passed by the Anglican ruling class in Ireland in intense anger at the Pope's recognition of James over William, felt to be a betrayal.
The intention of the la
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to 1939. He served as a Teachta Dála from 1947 to 1957. Rising from a domestic Irish political career, he founded or participated in many international organisations of the 20th century, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe and Amnesty International, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974, the Lenin Peace Prize for 1975–1976 and the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service in 1980. MacBride was born in Paris in the son of Major John MacBride and Maud Gonne, his first language was French, he retained a French accent in the English language for the rest of his life. He first studied at the Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, he remained in Paris until his father's execution after the Easter Rising of 1916, when he was sent to school at Mount St Benedict's, County Wexford in Ireland. In 1919, aged 15, he joined the Irish Volunteers, which fought as part of the Irish Republican Army, took part in the Irish War of Independence.
He opposed the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and was imprisoned by the Irish Free State during the Civil War. On his release in 1924, MacBride studied law at University College Dublin and resumed his IRA activities, he worked for Éamon de Valera as his personal secretary, travelling with him to Rome to meet various dignitaries. In January 1925, on his twenty-first birthday, MacBride married Catalina "Kid" Bulfin, a woman four years his senior who shared his political views. Bulfin was the daughter of travel-writer William Bulfin. Before returning to Dublin in 1927, where he became the IRA's Director of Intelligence, MacBride worked as a journalist in Paris and London. Soon after his return, he was arrested and charged with the murder of politician Kevin O'Higgins, assassinated near his home in Booterstown, County Dublin. MacBride was able to prove, that he was on his way back to Ireland at the time, as he was able to call unionist-turned-Cumann na nGaedheal politician Bryan Cooper, whom he had met on the boat travelling home, as a witness.
He was charged with being a subversive and interned in Mountjoy Prison. Towards the end of the 1920s, after many supporters had left to join Fianna Fáil, some members of the IRA started pushing for a more left-wing agenda. After the IRA Army Council voted down the idea, MacBride launched a new movement, Saor Éire, in 1931. Although it was a non-military organisation, Saor Éire was declared unlawful along with the IRA, Cumann na mBan and nine other bodies. MacBride, became the security services' number-one target. In 1936, the IRA's chief of staff Moss Twomey was sent to prison for three years. At the time, the movement was in a state of disarray, with conflicts between several factions and personalities. Tom Barry was appointed chief of staff to head up a military operation against the British, an action with which MacBride did not agree. In 1937, MacBride was called to the bar, he resigned from the IRA when the Constitution of Ireland was enacted that year. As a barrister, MacBride defended IRA political prisoners, but was unsuccessful in stopping the execution in 1944 of Charlie Kerins, convicted of killing Garda Detective Denis O'Brien in 1942.
In 1946, during the inquest into the death of Seán McCaughey, MacBride embarrassed the authorities by forcing them to admit that the conditions in Portlaoise Prison were inhumane. In 1946, MacBride founded the republican/socialist party Clann na Poblachta, he hoped. In October 1947, he won a seat in Dáil Éireann at a by-election in the Dublin County constituency. On the same day, Patrick Kinane won the Tipperary by-election for Clann na Poblachta. However, at the 1948 general election Clann na Poblachta won only ten seats; the party joined with Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the National Labour Party, Clann na Talmhan and several independents to form the First Inter-Party Government with Fine Gael TD John A. Costello as Taoiseach. Richard Mulcahy was the Leader of Fine Gael, but MacBride and many other Irish Republicans had never forgiven Mulcahy for his role in carrying out 77 executions under the government of the Irish Free State in the 1920s during the Irish Civil War. To gain the support of Clann na Poblachta, Mulcahy stepped aside in favour of Costello.
Two Clann na Poblachta TDs joined the cabinet. On his ministerial accession, McBride sent a telegram to Pope Pius XII offering: "...to repose at the feet of Your Holiness the assurance of our filial loyalty and our devotion to Your August Person, as well as our firm resolve to be guided in all our work by the teaching of Christ and to strive for the attainment of a social order in Ireland based on Christian principles". MacBride was Minister of External Affairs when the Council of Europe was drafting the European Convention on Human Rights, he served as President of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from 1949 to 1950 and is credited with being a key force in securing the acceptance of this convention, signed in Rome on 4 November 1950. In 1950, he was president of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe, he was vice-president of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation in 1948–51, he was responsible for Ireland not joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
He was instrumental in the implementation of the Repeal of the External Relations Act and the Declaration of the Republic of
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was a prominent statesman and political leader in 20th-century Ireland. His political career spanned over half a century, from 1917 to 1973, he led the introduction of the Constitution of Ireland. Prior to de Valera's political career, he was a Commandant at Boland's Mill during the 1916 Easter Rising, an Irish revolution that would contribute to Irish independence, he was arrested, sentenced to death but released for a variety of reasons, including the public response to the British execution of Rising leaders. He returned to Ireland after being jailed in England and became one of the leading political figures of the War of Independence. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, de Valera served as the political leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein until 1926, when he, along with many supporters, left the party to set up Fianna Fáil, a new political party which abandoned the policy of abstentionism from Dáil Éireann. From there, de Valera would go on to be at the forefront of Irish politics until the turn of the 1960s.
He took over as President of the Executive Council from W. T. Cosgrave and Taoiseach, with the passing of Bunreacht Na hEireann in 1937, he would serve as Taoiseach on 3 occasions. He remains the longest serving Taoiseach by total days served in the post, he resigned in 1959 upon his election as President of Ireland. By he had been Leader of Fianna Fáil for 33 years, he, along with older founding members, began to take a less prominent role relative to newer ministers such as Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney, he would serve as President from two full terms in office. De Valera's political beliefs evolved from militant Irish republicanism to strong social and economic conservatism, he has been characterised by a stern, devious demeanor. His roles in the Civil War have portrayed him as a divisive figure in Irish history. Biographer Tim Pat Coogan sees his time in power as being characterised by economic and cultural stagnation, while Diarmaid Ferriter argues that the stereotype of de Valera as an austere and backward figure was manufactured in the 1960s and is misguided.
Éamon de Valera was born on 14 October 1882 in New York City, the son of Catherine Coll, from Bruree, County Limerick, Juan Vivion de Valera, described on the birth certificate as a Spanish artist born in the Basque Country, Spain. He was born at the Nursery and Child's Hospital, Lexington Avenue, a home for destitute orphans and abandoned children, his parents were married on 18 September 1881 at St Patrick's Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, but archivists have not located any marriage certificate or any birth, baptismal, or death certificate information for anyone called Juan Vivion de Valera. On de Valera's original birth certificate, his name is given as George de Valero and his father is listed as Vivion de Valero. Although he was known as Edward de Valera before 1901, a fresh birth certificate was issued in 1910, in which his first name was changed to Edward and his father's surname given as "de Valera"; as a child, he was known as "Eddie" or "Eddy". According to Coll, Juan Vivion died in her child in poor circumstances.
Éamon was taken to Ireland by his uncle Ned at the age of two. When his mother married a new husband in the mid-1880s, he was not brought back to live with her, but was reared instead by his grandmother, Elizabeth Coll, her son Patrick and her daughter Hannie, in County Limerick, he was educated locally at Bruree National School, County Limerick and C. B. S. Charleville, County Cork. Aged sixteen, he won a scholarship, he was not successful in enrolling at two colleges in Limerick, but was accepted at Blackrock College, Dublin, at the instigation of his local curate. He played rugby at Blackrock and Rockwell College for the Munster rugby team around 1905, he remained a lifelong devotee of rugby, attending international matches towards the end of his life when he was nearly blind. Always a diligent student, at the end of his first year in Blackrock College he was student of the year, he won further scholarships and exhibitions and in 1903 was appointed teacher of mathematics at Rockwell College, County Tipperary.
It was here that de Valera was first given the nickname "Dev" by a teaching colleague, Tom O'Donnell. In 1904, he graduated in mathematics from the Royal University of Ireland, he studied for a year at Trinity College Dublin but, owing to the necessity of earning a living, did not proceed further and returned to teaching, this time at Belvedere College. In 1906, he secured a post as teacher of mathematics at Carysfort Teachers' Training College for women in Blackrock, Dublin, his applications for professorships in colleges of the National University of Ireland were unsuccessful, but he obtained a part-time appointment at Maynooth and taught mathematics at various Dublin schools, including Castleknock College and Belvedere College. There were occasions when de Valera contemplated the religious life like his half-brother, Fr. Thomas Wheelwright, but he did not pursue this vocation; as late as 1906, when he was 24 years old, he approached the President of Clonliffe Seminary in Dublin for advice on his vocation.
De Valera was throughout his life portrayed as a religious man, who in death asked to be buried in a religious habit. His bi
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. Founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Larkin, James Connolly, William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress, it describes itself as a "democratic socialist party" in its constitution. Labour continues to be the political arm of the Irish trade union and labour movement and seeks to represent workers interests in the Dáil and on a local level. Unlike the other main Irish political parties, Labour did not arise as a faction of the original Sinn Féin party; the party has served as a partner in coalition governments on seven occasions since its formation: six times in coalition either with Fine Gael alone or with Fine Gael and other smaller parties, once with Fianna Fáil. This gives Labour a cumulative total of nineteen years served as part of a government, the second-longest total of any party in the Republic of Ireland after Fianna Fáil; the current party leader is Brendan Howlin.
It is the fourth-largest party in Dáil Éireann, with seven seats. In November 2018, Labour announced that they were considering running candidates again in Northern Ireland, in response to a potential merger between Fianna Fáil and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, with whom Labour have long had fraternal links; the last time Labour had contested elections in the region was in 1973, shortly after the SDLP's formation. The Labour Party is a member of the Progressive Alliance, Socialist International, Party of European Socialists. James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien established the Irish Labour Party in 1912, as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress; this party was to represent the workers in the expected Dublin Parliament under the Third Home Rule Act 1914. However, after the defeat of the trade unions in the Dublin Lockout of 1913 the labour movement was weakened; the Irish Citizen Army, formed during the 1913 Lockout, was informally the military wing of the Labour Movement.
The ICA took part in the 1916 Rising. Councillor Richard O'Carroll, a Labour Party member of Dublin Corporation, was the only elected representative to be killed during the Easter Rising. O'Carroll was shot and died several days on 5 May 1916; the ICA was revived during Peadar O'Donnell's Republican Congress but after the 1935 split in the Congress most ICA members joined the Labour Party. The British Labour Party had organised in Ireland, but in 1913 the Labour NEC agreed that the Irish Labour Party would have organising rights over the entirety of Ireland. A group of trade unionists in Belfast objected and the Belfast Labour Party, which became the nucleus of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, remained outside the new Irish party. In Larkin's absence, William O'Brien became the dominant figure in the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and wielded considerable influence in the Labour Party. O'Brien dominated the Irish Trade Union Congress; the Labour Party, led by Thomas Johnson from 1917, as successor to such organisations as D. D. Sheehan's Irish Land and Labour Association, declined to contest the 1918 general election, in order to allow the election to take the form of a plebiscite on Ireland's constitutional status.
It refrained from contesting the 1921 elections. As a result, the party was left outside Dáil Éireann during the vital years of the independence struggle, though Johnson sat in the First Dáil; the Anglo-Irish Treaty divided the Labour Party. Some members sided with the Irregulars in the Irish Civil War that followed. O'Brien and Johnson encouraged its members to support the Treaty. In the 1922 general election the party won 17 seats. However, there were a number of a loss in support for the party. In the 1923 general election the Labour Party only won 14 seats. From 1922 until Fianna Fáil TDs took their seats in 1927, the Labour Party was the major opposition party in the Dáil. Labour attacked the lack of social reform by the Cumann na nGaedheal government. Larkin returned to Ireland in 1923, he hoped to resume the leadership role he had left, but O'Brien resisted him. Larkin sided with the more radical elements of the party, in September that year he established the Irish Worker League. In 1932, the Labour Party supported Éamon de Valera's first Fianna Fáil government, which had proposed a programme of social reform with which the party was in sympathy.
It appeared for a time during the 1940s that the Labour Party would replace Fine Gael as the main opposition party. In the 1943 general election the party won 17 seats, its best result since 1927; the party was conservative compared to similar European parties, its leaders from 1932 to 1977 were members of the Knights of Saint Columbanus. The Larkin-O'Brien feud still continued, worsened over time. In the 1940s the hatred caused the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. O'Brien left with six TDs in 1944, founding the National Labour Party, whose leader was James Everett. O'Brien withdrew ITGWU from the Irish Trade Unions Congress and set up his own congress; the split damaged the Labour movement in the 1944 general election. It was only after Larkin's death in 1947. After the 1948 general election National Labour had five TDs – Everett, Dan Spri
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the prime minister and head of government of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil; the word taoiseach means "chief" or "leader" in Irish and was adopted in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland as the title of the "head of the Government, or Prime Minister". Taoiseach is the official title of the head of government in both English and Irish, is not used for other countries' prime ministers; the Irish form, An Taoiseach, is sometimes used in English instead of "the Taoiseach". Outside of Ireland, the Taoiseach is sometimes referred to as the Prime Minister of Ireland. Leo Varadkar TD is the current Taoiseach. Varadkar is the youngest Taoiseach in the history of the Irish state, having taken office at the age of 38. Under the Constitution of Ireland, the Taoiseach is nominated by a simple majority of Dáil Éireann from among its members.
He/she is formally appointed to office by the President, required to appoint whomever the Dáil designates, without the option of declining to make the appointment. For this reason, it is said that the Taoiseach is "elected" by Dáil Éireann. If the Taoiseach loses the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann, he/she is not automatically removed from office but, rather, is compelled either to resign or to persuade the President to dissolve the Dáil; the President may refuse to grant a dissolution and, in effect, force the Taoiseach to resign. The Taoiseach may lose the support of Dáil Éireann by the passage of a vote of no confidence, or implicitly through the failure of a vote of confidence. In the event of the Taoiseach's resignation, he/she continues to exercise the duties and functions of his/her office until the appointment of a successor; the Taoiseach nominates the remaining members of the Government, who are with the consent of the Dáil, appointed by the President. The Taoiseach has authority to advise the President to dismiss cabinet ministers from office, advice the President is required to follow by convention.
The Taoiseach is further responsible for appointing eleven members of the Seanad. The Department of the Taoiseach is the government department which supports and advises the Taoiseach in carrying out his/her various duties. Since 2013, the Taoiseach's annual salary is €185,350, it was cut from €214,187 to €200,000 when Enda Kenny took office, before being cut further to €185,350 under the Haddington Road Agreement in 2013. A proposed increase of €38,000 in 2007 was deferred when Brian Cowen became Taoiseach and in October 2008, the government announced a 10% salary cut for all ministers, including the Taoiseach; however this was a voluntary cut and the salaries remained nominally the same with both ministers and Taoiseach refusing 10% of their salary. This courted controversy in December 2009 when a salary cut of 20% was based on the higher figure before the refused amount was deducted; the Taoiseach is allowed an additional €118,981 in annual expenses. There is no official residence of the Taoiseach.
In 2008 it was reported speculatively that the former Steward's Lodge at Farmleigh adjoining the Phoenix Park would become the official residence of the Taoiseach. The house, which forms part of the Farmleigh estate acquired by the State in 1999 for €29.2m, was renovated at a cost of nearly €600,000 in 2005 by the Office of Public Works. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern did not use it as a residence, but his successor Brian Cowen used it "from time to time"; the words Tánaiste are both from the Irish language and of ancient origin. Though the Taoiseach is described in the Constitution of Ireland as "the head of the Government or Prime Minister", its literal translation is chieftain or leader. Although Éamon de Valera, who introduced the title in 1937, was neither a Fascist nor a dictator, it has sometimes been remarked that the meaning leader in 1937 made the title similar to the titles of Fascist dictators of the time, such as Führer and Caudillo. Tánaiste, in turn, refers to the system of tanistry, the Gaelic system of succession whereby a leader would appoint an heir apparent while still living.
In Scottish Gaelic, tòiseach translates as clan chief and both words had similar meanings in the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland. The related Welsh language word tywysog has meaning, it is hypothesized that both derive from the proto-Celtic *towissākos "chieftain, leader". The plural of taoiseach is taoisigh. Although the Irish form An Taoiseach is sometimes used in English instead of "the Taoiseach", the English version of the Constitution states that he or she "shall be called... the Taoiseach". In 1937 when the draft Constitution of Ireland was being debated in the Dáil, Frank MacDermot, an opposition politician, moved an amendment to substitute "Prime Minister" for the proposed "Taoiseach" title in the English text of the Constitution, it was proposed to keep the "Taoiseach" title in the Irish language text. The proponent remarked: It seems to me to be mere make-believe to try to incorporate a word like "Taoiseach" in the Eng
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