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FAMILY DYNASTIES HAVE always played an outsized role in Irish political life.
After all, the last two Taoisigh – Enda Kenny and Brian Cowen – originally took over their seats from their fathers, and our last head of government not to have had a family member in the Dáil was Albert Reynolds.
In fact, 29 TDs in the outgoing Dáil had family members who had a place in our lower house of parliament.
But siblings are rarer. In Irish history, there have been 26 sets of brothers and sisters, and 10 of them sat in Dáil Eireann at the same time.
What Michael and Danny Healy-Rae just achieved, however, is unprecedented. There has never before been a pair of siblings elected to the same Dáil, in the same constituency.
Here’s a quick look back at some of the most high-profile brothers and sisters who went to work together on Kildare Street, over the last few decades.
Bertie & Noel Ahern (1992-2011)
Bertie was, of course, Taoiseach from 1997-2008, and a TD since 1977.
In 1992, Noel – seven years his senior – joined Bertie at work on Kildare Street, and served as a TD for Dublin North-West, rising to Junior Minister from 2007-2009, before the two brothers bowed out together at the 2011 election.
The eldest of the three – and last to make his bid for national office – was Maurice, a councillor in Cabra-Glasnevin and former Lord Mayor of Dublin.
He attempted to join Bertie in Dublin Central in 2009, but came fifth in the by-election caused by the death of Independent TD Tony Gregory.
Brian & Conor Lenihan (1997-2011)
The late Brian Lenihan was first elevated to the Dáil at the age of 36, in the 1996 Dublin West by-election caused by the death of his father, former Tánaiste Brian Lenihan Sr.
He held the seat in the general election the following year, when he was joined in the lower house by his brother Conor, four years his junior, who won a seat in Dublin South-West.
Conor, previously a journalist and business consultant, held three separate junior ministries during the 2000s, while Brian was made junior minister for Children.
The elder Lenihan brother was elevated to cabinet in 2007, when Bertie Ahern appointed him Justice Minister.
When Brian Cowen took over as Taoiseach in 2008, he appointed Brian Lenihan to succeed him as Minister for Finance, making him perhaps the most scrutinised politician in the country, as Ireland suffered the rigours of financial crisis and bailout.
In February 2011, Brian came through a scare in Dublin West, but managed to hold on to his seat, making him Fianna Fáil’s last remaining TD in the capital, amid their catastrophic election that year. He died of pancreatic cancer four months later.
After topping the poll in 2007, Conor Lenihan suffered a somewhat humiliating defeat in Dublin South-West four years later, when his vote was slashed by almost 75% and he was the third candidate eliminated out of 10.
John & Richard Bruton (1982-2004)
The second of two Taoisigh to have served alongside his brother, John Bruton was a TD in Meath for 35 years, first being elected in 1969.
Richard – six years younger – was fast-tracked from Meath County Council to Dáil Éireann (via the Seanad) in just three years, getting elected in Dublin North-Central in 1982, at the age of just 28.
His big brother appointed him Minister for Enterprise in 1994, before resigning as party leader, in opposition, in 2001, and retiring from the Dáil in 2004.
They are one of only two sets of siblings in Irish history to serve in the same cabinet. Which brings us to…
Brian Lenihan Sr & Mary O’Rourke (1982-1995)
Another generation of Lenihans, another set of siblings.
Brian Sr was first elected to the Dáil in Roscommon at the 1961 contest, after serving in the Seanad for four years.
In 1965, his father Patrick was elected in Longford-Westmeath – the first and still the only instance of a parent entering the Dáil after their child.
In all, Brian Lenihan Sr held seven senior cabinet ministries between 1964 and 1990, and was Tánaiste to Charles Haughey from 1987 until 1990, when Haughey sacked him amid controversy, at the height of Lenihan’s ultimately unsuccessful candidacy for President.
Lenihan grew up in Athlone, alongside his sister Mary, who joined him in the Dáil in 1982, after being elected in Longford-Westmeath, where their father Patrick had held a seat until 1970.
When she was appointed Minister for Education in 1987, Lenihan and O’Rourke became the first siblings in Irish history to hold cabinet posts at the same time – an achievement that was equalled 10 years later, when Richard Bruton became Minister for Enterprise.
Lenihan had suffered ill health, and once famously won re-election in Dublin West in 1989, while undergoing a liver transplant in the United States.
He died at the age of 64 in 1995, triggering a by-election which his son Brian won.
O’Rourke held three senior ministries in all, before losing her seat by 350 votes in 2002, and serving in the Seanad for five years.
She was handily re-elected to the Dáil in 2007, and despite not holding ministerial office again, was regarded as something of a matriarch for the Fianna Fáil party nationally.
With the electorate punishing Fianna Fáil throughout the country in 2011, then 73-year-old O’Rourke saw her vote slashed in Longford-Westmeath that year.
She failed to be re-elected, meaning there was no member of the Lenihan family in the Dáil or Seanad, for the first time in 54 years.
Here’s the full list of siblings who sat in the Dáil at the same time:
Pre-Independence British parliament
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Just another government shambles, but as they say, we will learn from this.
@John O Mahony: and hopefully not the hard way.
@John O Mahony: Do you Really think so? Yes when the Russian forces have decided a walkover of this country. A strategic target to begin the cakewalk of Europe. It is then we will see the people climbing back to their hovels with their tails between their legs, after hastily taking down the Ukrainian flags that are dotted around the country. Can you see Ukraine or any other countries hoisting The Tricolour if we were invaded. History has dictated that this will never happen. So why not mind our own business.
Ireland is the gaping hole in EU security. If it weren’t for the fact of the RAF and RN (we have no capability in our own economic zone should cables be interfered with), we would be s c r e w e d. And given Brexit we, an EU nation, have to rely on a third country for defence. An absolute shambles of successive governments have seen the DF weakened.
But sure, aren’t we neutral. Tell that to the Chinese and Russians, and any other would be aggressor. We are like the wimpy kid in the playground, always at risk to a bullies whims.
@AnthonyK: we’ve only ever had one government
@AnthonyK: I see your point but in regards a military it would take billions and billions to build up a military that would still be wiped out in a matter of days against a country like Russia. As regards NATO would they even take us?
@Paddy Ryan: further on that, is it exactly because we are the gaping hole in the EUs defence that we don’t have to spend enormous amounts of money on defence. They will be forced to defend us. A small country like Ireland needs to box clever. Maybe I’m completely wrong but Just a thought.
@James Delaney: The current government is, in fact, the thirty third Dáil Éireann.
@Paddy Ryan: Precisely!
This is what happens when you elect people who are not patriots. They leave the country defenceless.
@Brian Boru: The country is defenceless anyway and spending 58 million would just tell us we are all going to die>
It is outrageous that in this day and age we have absolutely no capability to monitor our territory, not to mention have any chance of knowing what’s coming at us. Neutral or not, that’s the least we should be able to do. It is time this was remedied, there are billions coming our way in corporate taxes, let’s use that rather than “eaten bread soon forgotten “ stuff.
@Mary Conneely: Primary radar doesn’t let you know what’s coming at us. It lets you know something’s there. It’s just a signal return off an object that is tracked. Secondary radar with transponders let’s you know what’s coming…… The radar is irrelevant in defense terms if you don’t have anything to catch up with the intruder to identify it. A PC9 won’t catch up with any jet. The IAA have primary radar AFAIK. The extent of which is not known as they don’t have it published on their website.
@Colm Kane: A huge waste of money in this day and age given our size, location and given the capabilities of any nation that would be an aggressor. Spend the money on patrol boats/search and rescue.
True neutrality isn’t cheap folks. Time to pony up.
@honey badger: we’re not neutral
Keep chipping away all you like, but no to Nato
@Duffy #35: they wouldn’t invite us unless our spend drastically increases, which no government will agree to. Currently spend just over 0.2% of GDP on defence, which would need to be increased to a minimum of 2%. I have seen no pressure whatsoever for us to join NATO.
@Duffy #35: We already have NATO de facto protecting our sea and skies. You can say NO all you like but would it not be better if we coughed up for our own equipment to defend ourselves?
Instead of saying “No to Nato” while happily letting them protect us. on their terms?
@goldiefish72: Their terms, they sound great they do the work, we dont pay for it and we are covered!
So, the cost of such a defence capability would be in excess of 300 Million Euro.
A quick cost benefit analysis might be in order. How much damage to the country has been done by not having such a defence capability? The answer is: none at all.
There are better uses for that 300 million Euro.
@Nestor: really? And you know this how?
Hmmm – “Ireland’s air policing security failure and how the British system keeps their skies safe”. Well I think we all know how Britain keeps their skies safe, they have the RAF. The headline should read, Ireland’s air policing security failure and how the British system keeps OUR/IRISH skies safe, unless of course the author is English and given his name, I doubt it.
@Ann Reddin: Thats all you took from the article? The Author is Irish!!
The headline is correct. The RAF patrol our skies to keep their skies safe. Because we can’t do it. Normal countries would protect their own skies, escort aircraft of interest through safely, then handover to the neighbouring Air Force who escorts it through their own skies.. Thats how Neutral Austria and Switzerland does it.
Maybe try reading beyond the headline before commenting?
Why would anyone go so far out of their way to attack/invad us? We don’t have anything that anybody wants.
@brian o’leary: Why would anyone attack/invade us? Because, given our geographical location, we are strategically important. If. let’s say, Russia decided to invade us tomorrow, that has Europe flanked on two sides, by Russia, Next stop if you head west is the US, and next stop to the east is Britain. So a great location if you want to start launching missiles or send war planes to either of those two “super powers”.
@Ann Reddin: You watched an old James Bond movie last night, didn’t you Ann?
@Ann Reddin: There’s no way Russia would be able to sustain supply lines from Russia to Ireland should they occupy us.
@David Corrigan: I wouldn’t watch a James Bond film if it was the only film ever made. Brian asked a question and I answered it. And if we weren’t that strategically important, then why are Russian u-boats constantly in our territorial waters.
@Ann Reddin: Russia or any other country for that matter has any interest whatsoever in Ireland Ann. The only reason anyone bothers with us is because we are a tax haven for multinationals. I think you can rest easy.
@Steve: it would all depend on how its viewed internationally. would any country care enough to implement a naval blockade. if not then russia could easily maintain an occupation force. plus russia gains the entire irish population as hostages to any foreign intervention.
@Ann Reddin: becase they are trying to get at the Royal Navy. We just happen to be in the way!
@brian o’leary: aside from the first airport that American reinforcements can fly to in Europe, and as Im sure you already know, quite often do so, using it as a refuelling stop. And enemy fighters based in Shannon can therefore intercept all American flights well to the west. Meaning US carriers would have to deploy to protect military transport, both air and sea. Or of course the deep water ports on the west coastfron Donegal to Bantry, ideal for submarine bases that have plenty of opportunity to annihilate shipping from iceland to Spain
@brian o’leary: Yes they do want something from us “Neutrality” which means minding our own business. The present regime in Dublin is making this very difficult. I spoke to a Ukrainian last week. He said that Ukraine and Russia are as bad as each other. When I see a Ukrainian flags floating from houses around the country I think how gullible we are. How much do we really know about the facts for a start. In fact we are leaving ourselves very open to invasion. This much I do know.
Ukraine shows us that manpads and javelins are the way to go. Adopt to guerrilla tactics instead of a standing army that could be wiped out in a day..
@Bart Teeling: what you do not realised is that the Irish defence forces are classed as one of the best trained gorilla warfare armies in the world as everyone in the army is crossed trained in all weapons among a lot of other things
@Pól Ó Broin: Nonsense. Pub talk.
@Pól Ó Broin: Where in the world then have they carried out all this so called gorilla warfare, just name the locations and when.
@Bart Teeling: problem is the day of the flying column is gone. with drone surveillance, attack aircraft and thermal and night vision equipment a column of irregulars moving by foot that wasnt in heavy cover would be screwed
@goldiefish72: Fact, that is the way they have always been trained. My dad had his orders during the Emergency. Two dofferent sets, one if it was the Germans the other if it was the British. It was all gureilla tactics, hit and run, goes back to the war of independence and before.
@Rian Lynch: As shown elsewhere that is not quiet true. A small well trained force can inflict serious damage. For all the tech there is there is tech to block it.
@Pól Ó Broin: Help.
So our skys are full of unidentified flying objects…
We don’t have the population of a large city in the whole of Ireland.Lets not lose the run of ourselves.Opposition TD’S jumping up and down.Who did the think was protecting our skies,Eddie Rockets!
@Paddy Ryan – Ukraine proves the point that a well-trained army ie a NATO well trained army is a match for the Russians.
We could do deals with French, and Spanish forces, even have, as part of a wider EU army, their forces based in Ireland alongside our own.
Who was it again that invaded our shores last?
What happens if societal changes/breakdowns mean once again that it’s not the Russians we need to worry about.
Found money to beef up tds security, but no the country’s. Shameful greed. A case of screw you jack,I’m alright.
“Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are sickly aims, the false ideals of our age’.
WILDE
Of the 3 neutral countries listed in this article Ireland, Austria and Switzerland, Austria has Eurofighters and Switzerland has F-18 Hornets, Ireland is the only one without any jets. Just because we are neutral that does not mean we don’t need a proper air force and well equipped Defence force. Other countries that are neutral have large defence forces to protect their neutrality.
Ireland is an embarrassment when it comes to our own Defence.
Shambles
If our politicians stop sticking their noses in were it doesn’t belong then we’ve nothing to fear from anyone…the only two country’s that could realistically is the uk and the US….every other scenario is just fear mongering nonsense…
What a joke of a country, flying WW2 aircraft, can only intercept slow moving aircraft that moves at snail pace, they should let the RAF patrol Irish airspace, other wise if left to Paddies, forget it. Like underground Metro a pipe dream that will new be done
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