John O'Connell

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Dr. John O'Connell (born January 30, 1930), was a senior Irish politician. He was elected as a Labour Party TD in 1965 and at each election until 1987. He served in Seanad Éireann from 1987 to 1989 and then returned to the Dáil until he resigned in 1993. He has also served as Minister for Health (1992-1993).

John O'Connell was born in Dublin on January 30, 1930. He was educated at St Vincents in Glasnevin and the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin. He began his political career when he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Labour Party TD in the 1965 general election. He held a seat for the Party until 1981 when he was expelled for refusing to stand in the Dublin West constituency. Instead he stood in the Dublin South Central constituency, opposing the party leader, Frank Cluskey. O'Connell, always a large vote-getter, easily topped the poll causing Cluskey to lose his Dáil seat.

In 1967 Dr O'Connell founded the Irish Medical Times, a weekly broadsheet for doctors.

O'Connell was elected to the European Parliament in 1979.

O'Connell was surrounded in controversy in the 1970's when he arranged a meeting in his home between Harold Wilson MP, then leader of the British Labour Party, and Dáithí Ó Conaill (no relation), member of the Provisional IRA army council. Negotiations that night to broker a ceasefire were successful in the short term but ultimately broke down.

In 1981 O'Connell was appointed Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann, a position he held until December 1982. In 1983 he became a member of Fianna Fáil, representing the Party until he lost his Dáil seat in 1987. That year he was one of Taoiseach Charles Haughey's nominees to the 18th Seanad Éireann, serving until he regained his Dáil seat at the next election.

O'Connell supported Albert Reynolds after he resigned from the Cabinet and is seen as one who persuaded Haughey to resign when he did. O'Connell was appointed Minister for Health by Reynolds in 1992 and was the Minister responsible for loosening the Catholic church's stranglehold on family planning and contraception law in Ireland. Condom vending machines, up until then banned, were legalised by O'Connell in a concerted effort to change the focus from morality to practicality. O'Connell remained as Minister for Health until 1993 when he resigned from the Dáil and the Cabinet due to ill health.

Further controversy surrounded O'Connell's relationship with Charles Haughey in later years during the Moriarty Tribunal when it was revealed that O'Connell was the conduit of moneys between Arab tycoon Mahmoud Fustok and Haughey, and it was further revealed that O'Connell had invested a significant sum in Celtic Helicopters, the business venture of Haughey's son Ciaran.

Preceded by Pádraig Faulkner	Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann 1981–1982	Succeeded by Thomas Fitzpatrick
Preceded by Mary O'Rourke	Minister for Health 1992–1993	Succeeded by Brendan Howlin

Speakers of Dáil Éireann Cinn Comhairlí Dáil Éireann
Cathal Brugha | Seán T. O'Kelly | Eoin MacNeill | Michael Hayes | Frank Fahy | Patrick Hogan | Cormac Breslin | Seán Treacy | Joseph Brennan | Pádraig Faulkner | John O'Connell | Thomas Fitzpatrick | Séamus Pattison | Rory O'Hanlon

This page incorporates information from the Oireachtas Members Database