Billy Fox

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Billy Fox (3rd January 1939 – 12th March 1974) was a politician in Ireland, a member of Dáil Éireann (lower house of parliament) from 1969 to 1973, and of Seanad Éireann (upper house) from 1973 until his murder by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in March 1974.

A member of the Fine Gael party, Fox was first elected to Monaghan County Council in 1967, and to the Dáil for the Monaghan constituency in the Irish general election, 1969. This was the first time ever that Fine Gael won two seats out of three in Monaghan, a county along the Republic of Ireland's border with Northern Ireland. Monaghan has traditionally had strong republican leanings and Fine Gael had often polled poorly there in the past. Fox was also one of a handful of members of Dáil Éireann (TD's) from the minority Protestant community.

The outbreak of political unrest and violence in Northern Ireland, and a corresponding increase in republican sentiment, may have contributed to the loss of the second Fine Gael seat in Monaghan, against the national trend, in the 1973 general election. Fox was defeated, but later that year he was elected to the 13th Seanad by the Cultural and Educational panel.

[edit] Murder

On 12 March 1974, he went to visit the home of his fiancé in rural County Monaghan, as he did on all Mondays. 13 armed members of the IRA had occupied the house in Tircooney (near Clones). He ran from the scene but was followed by the IRA who shot him dead.

He was the first member of the Oireachtas to be murdered since the assassination of the then Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins (also by the IRA) in 1927.

The Senator Billy Fox Memorial Park in Aughnamullen is named in his memory.