Liam Cunningham (Irish politician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Liam Cunningham (25 January 1915 – 29 February 1976) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was born in County Donegal in 1915. A qualified national school teacher Cunningham was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1951 general election as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Donegal East constituency, now part of the Donegal North East constituency. At the time the senior TD was Neil Blaney who would subsequently become a Government Minister.

After the events of the Arms Crisis Blaney was sacked as Minister for Agriculture by then Taoiseach Jack Lynch. In the resulting reshuffle Cunningham was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government on 9 May 1970. This was something of a surprise at the time and was attributed to an attempt by the party leadership to pressurise Blaney within the Donegal North-East constituency. Cunningham remained a Parliamentary Secretary until Fianna Fáil lost power in 1973 general election.

When Blaney launched the Independent Fianna Fáil organisation most of the Fianna Fáil public representatives joined the new organisation. Cunningham remained loyal, however, and was comfortably re-elected in the 1973 general election. He remained a TD until his death on 29 February 1976. In a considerable political shock the resulting by-election was won by Paddy Keaveney of Independent Fianna Fáil.

[edit] Sources

• Politics.ie wiki
• Kevin Rafter (1993) Neil Blaney: A Soldier of Destiny.

Oireachtas
Preceded by John Friel (Fianna Fáil)	Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Donegal East 1951–1961	Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Preceded by Newly created constituency	Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Donegal North East 1961–1976	Succeeded by Paddy Keaveney (Independent Fianna Fáil)
Political offices
Preceded by Paudge Brennan	Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government 1970–1973	Succeeded by Michael Begley

This page incorporates information from the Oireachtas Members Database