Editing Neil Blaney (section)

==Independent Fianna Fáil==
Following his expulsion from Fianna Fáil, Kevin Boland tried to persuade Blaney to join the [[Aontacht Éireann]] party he was creating but Blaney declined. Instead, he contested all subsequent elections for [[Independent Fianna Fáil]] – The Republican Party, an organisation that he built up, chiefly in the [[County Donegal]] constituencies from disaffected members of the Fianna Fáil party who remained loyal to him along with a large number of Republicans. Throughout the 1970s there were frequent calls for his re-admittance to Fianna Fáil but the most vocal opponents of this move were Fianna Fáil delegates from County Donegal.

At the [[1979 European Parliament election in Ireland|1979 European elections]] Blaney topped the poll in the [[Connacht–Ulster (European Parliament constituency)|Connacht–Ulster]] constituency to the annoyance of Fianna Fáil. He sat in the [[Technical Group of Independents (1979–1984)|Technical Group of Independents]] and served as chair of the group along with the Italian Radical [[Marco Pannella]] and Danish left-wing [[Eurosceptic]] [[Jens-Peter Bonde]]. He narrowly lost the seat at the [[1984 European Parliament election in Ireland|1984 election]] to [[Ray MacSharry]] but was returned to serve as an [[Member of the European Parliament|MEP]] in [[1989 European Parliament election in Ireland|1989 election]] where he sat with the regionalist [[Rainbow Group (1989–1994)|Rainbow Group]]. He also canvassed for [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|IRA]] [[hunger strike]]r [[Bobby Sands]] in the [[April 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election|Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election]], in which Sands was elected to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]].

Blaney contracted cancer from which he died at the age of 73 on 8 November 1995.<ref name="The Independent"/> He held his Dáil seat until his death and was the reigning [[Father of the Dáil]] at that time.<ref name="Farewell to Father of the Dáil">{{cite news|first=Louise|last=Doyle|title=The Way We Were - 25 Years Ago: November 11, 1995 - Farewell to Father of the Dáil|work=[[Donegal News]]|date=12 November 2020|page=18|quote=...the remains of Neil T Blaney began the first leg of the journey back to his native Fanad from the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin yesterday (Thursday). Crowds gathered outside the City Hospital Chapel from 11 am to pay their respects to the country's longest serving TD.}}</ref> His death occurred at the [[Mater Private Hospital]] in [[Dublin]].<ref name="Farewell to Father of the Dáil"/>

In the resulting by-election on 2 April 1996, the [[Fianna Fáil]] candidate reclaimed the seat. However, Blaney's brother, [[Harry Blaney]], was elected as an Independent Fianna Fáil TD at the [[1997 Irish general election|1997 general election]]. He was replaced by his son, [[Niall Blaney]], who was elected at the [[2002 Irish general election|2002 general election]]. But in July 2006 Niall rejoined Fianna Fáil. This was opposed by other members of the Blaney family, including all seven children of Neil Blaney and his widow Eva, who issued a press release prior to Niall Blaney's decision castigating the Fianna Fáil party and disassociating themselves from any so called 'truce' with them.