Editing Neil Blaney

{{Short description|Irish politician (1922–1995)}}
{{Distinguish|Neal Blaney|Niall Blaney}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image          = Neil Blaney 1990.jpg
| imagesize      = 
| caption        = Blaney in 1990
| office1        = Leader of [[Independent Fianna Fáil]]
| term_start1    = 1972
| term_end1      = 1995
| predecessor1    = ''Party established''
| successor1      = [[Harry Blaney]]
| office2        = [[Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine|Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries]]
| taoiseach2     = [[Jack Lynch]]
| term_start2    = 11 November 1966
| term_end2      = 7 May 1970
| predecessor2   = [[Charles Haughey]]
| successor2     = [[Jim Gibbons (Irish politician)|Jim Gibbons]]
| office3        = [[Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Minister for Local Government]]
| taoiseach3     = [[Seán Lemass]]
| term_start3    = 27 November 1957
| term_end3      = 10 November 1966
| predecessor3   = [[Patrick Smith (politician)|Paddy Smith]]
| successor3     = [[Kevin Boland]]
| office4        = [[Minister for Posts and Telegraphs]]
| taoiseach4     = [[Seán Lemass]]
| term_start4    = 20 March 1957
| term_end4      = 4 December 1957
| predecessor4   = [[Michael Keyes]]
| successor4     = [[John Ormonde]]
| office5        = [[Teachta Dála]]
| term_start5    = [[1977 Irish general election|June 1977]]
| term_end5      = [[1981 Irish general election|June 1981]]
| constituency5  = [[Donegal (Dáil constituency)|Donegal]]
| term_start6    = [[1981 Irish general election|June 1981]]
| term_end6      = 8 November 1995
| term_start7    = [[1961 Irish general election|October 1961]]
| term_end7      = [[1977 Irish general election|June 1977]]
| constituency7  = [[Donegal North-East (Dáil constituency)|Donegal North-East]]
| term_start8    = [[1948 Donegal East by-election|December 1948]]
| term_end8     = [[1961 Irish general election|October 1961]]
| constituency8  = [[Donegal East (Dáil constituency)|Donegal East]]
| office9        = [[Member of the European Parliament]]
| term_start9    = [[1989 European Parliament election in Ireland|June 1989]]
| term_end9      = [[1994 European Parliament election in Ireland|June 1994]]
| term_start10    = [[1979 European Parliament election in Ireland|June 1979]]
| term_end10      = [[1984 European Parliament election in Ireland|June 1984]]
| constituency10  = [[Connacht–Ulster (European Parliament constituency)|Connacht–Ulster]]
| birth_date     = {{birth date|1922|10|1|df=y}}
| birth_place    = [[Fanad]], [[County Donegal]], Ireland
| death_date     = {{death date and age|1995|11|8|1922|10|1|df=y}}
| death_place    = [[Dublin]], Ireland
| party          = {{ubl|[[Independent Fianna Fáil]] (1970–1995)|[[Fianna Fáil]] (until 1970)}}
| spouse         = Eva Corduff
| nationality    = [[Irish people|Irish]]
| children       =
| father         = [[Neal Blaney]]
| relatives      = {{ubl|[[Harry Blaney]] (brother)|[[Niall Blaney]] (nephew)}}
}}
'''Neil Terence Columba Blaney''' (1 October 1922 – 8 November 1995)<ref name="The Independent">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-neil-blaney-5641501.html|title=Obituary: Neil Blaney|author=Alan Murdoch|date=9 November 1995|work=[[The Independent]]|access-date=9 August 2021|archive-date=5 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005234825/http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-neil-blaney-5641501.html|url-status=live}}</ref> was an [[Irish people|Irish]] politician. He was first elected to [[Dáil Éireann]] in 1948 as a [[Fianna Fáil]] [[Teachta Dála]] (TD) representing [[Donegal East (Dáil constituency)|Donegal East]].<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Neil-TC-Blaney.D.1948-12-07/|title=Neil Blaney|website=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=14 August 2012|archive-date=7 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107185726/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Neil-TC-Blaney.D.1948-12-07|url-status=live}}</ref> A high-profile member of the party, Blaney served as a government minister several times; he was  [[Minister for Posts and Telegraphs]] (1957), [[Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Minister for Local Government]] (1957–1966) and [[Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine|Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries]] (1966–1970). In 1970 Blaney's career was radically altered when, alongside [[Charles Haughey]], he was involved in the [[Arms Crisis]] and stood accused of clandestinely arranging to provide weapons to the newly-emergent [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]]. Although later acquitted of wrongdoing in an Irish court, Blaney's involvement in the crisis saw him stripped of his ministries and eventually forced his expulsion from Fianna Fáil. A dogged political campaigner, Blaney managed to retain his seat in Donegal and remained a TD for another two decades, running under the banner of "[[Independent Fianna Fáil]]". In addition to being a TD, Blaney also entered into European politics, becoming a [[member of the European Parliament]] in 1979. Blaney was a holder of both offices when he died in 1995. Entering the Dáil as its youngest member, he left it [[Father of the Dáil|as the oldest member]].

==Early life==
Neil Blaney was born in 1922 in the village of Rossnakill in rural [[Fanad Peninsula]] in the north of [[County Donegal]], in Ireland.<ref name="The Independent"/> The second eldest of a family of eleven, Blaney's father [[Neal Blaney|Neal]] had been a commander of the [[Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) in Donegal during the [[Irish War of Independence|War of Independence]] and the [[Irish Civil War|Civil War]].<ref name="The Independent"/> His father served as both a TD and as a [[Seanad Éireann|Senator]] from 1927 through 1948; at which point Neil Blaney succeed him in that role.<ref name="The Independent"/> It was from his father that Blaney got his strong republican views and his first introduction to politics. He was educated locally at [[Tamney]] on the Fanad Peninsula and later attended [[St Eunan's College]] in [[Letterkenny]] as a boarder.  Blaney later worked as an organiser with the Irish National Vintners and Grocers Association.

==Early political career==
Blaney was first elected to [[Dáil Éireann]] for the [[Donegal East (Dáil constituency)|Donegal East]] constituency in a by-election in December 1948,<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=4936|title=Neil Blaney|website=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=14 August 2012|archive-date=30 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330205643/https://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=4936|url-status=live}}</ref> following the death of his father from cancer. He also became a member of [[Donegal County Council]]. Upon his election Blaney was the youngest member of the Dáil. He remained on the backbenches for a number of years before he was one of a group of young party members handpicked by [[Seán Lemass]] to begin a re-organisation drive for the party following the defeat at the [[1954 Irish general election|1954 general election]]. Within the party Blaney gained fame by running the party's by-election campaigns throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He introduced the concept of [[cavalcade]]s after his election victories in his constituency together with roadside bonfires. At the time this was an alien political concept in Ireland. Blaney also adopted wearing sunglasses, chewing gum and wearing bright ties and colourful suits. His dedicated bands of supporters earned the sobriquet 'the Donegal Mafia', and succeeded in getting [[Desmond O'Malley|Des O'Malley]] and [[Gerry Collins (politician)|Gerry Collins]] elected to the Dáil.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Rafter | first = Kevin | title = Neil Blaney - Soldier of Destiny | publisher = Blackwater Press | year = 1993 | page = 18 | isbn = 978-0861214839}}</ref>

==Ministerial career==
Following Fianna Fáil's victory at the [[1957 Irish general election|1957 general election]] [[Éamon de Valera]], as [[Taoiseach]], brought new blood into the [[Government of Ireland|Cabinet]] in the shape of Blaney, [[Jack Lynch]], [[Kevin Boland]] and [[Mícheál Ó Móráin]]. Blaney was appointed [[Minister for Posts and Telegraphs]], becoming the first government minister from Donegal, however, he moved to the position of [[Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Minister for Local Government]] at the end of 1957 following the death of [[Seán Moylan]]. Blaney proved to be an innovative minister and his first task as minister was to prepare the groundwork for the [[referendum]] to scrap the [[proportional representation]] electoral system and replace it with the [[first-past-the-post voting]] system. The referendum failed to be passed, however, Blaney was retained in the post when Lemass succeeded de Valera as Taoiseach in 1959. In 1963 he introduced the Planning Act to rationalise planning throughout the local authorities in the state. This act also created the agency, An Forás Forbatha, to bring planning experts together and also created The [[Institute of Public Administration (Ireland)|IPA]] as a development agency for the Public Sector. In time An Bord Pleanala would be created as an independent oversight authority. His department underwent a very large programme to provide piped water to rural homes. In 1965 Blaney introduced the Road Traffic Act which required that motorists take a driving test in roadworthy cars. During his tenure it became possible to pay rates (property taxes) by instalment and he also introduced legislation which entitled non-nationals to vote in local elections. In his time in this Department he is also synonymous with the construction of the towers in [[Ballymun]] an attempt at state-planning. Blaney always claimed that the project would have worked had it remained out of local-authority regulatory ownership or management.

In 1966 Lemass resigned as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader. The subsequent [[1966 Fianna Fáil leadership election|leadership election]] saw [[George Colley]] and [[Charles Haughey]] emerge as the two front-runners. Blaney was unimpressed with the choice and, with the support of the like-minded [[Kevin Boland]], he threw his hat in the ring, declaring himself to be the "Radical Republican" candidate. However outside the Northwest and apart from Boland, Blaney failed to attract much support. After some pressure from Lemass the [[Cork (city)|Cork]] politician, [[Jack Lynch]], entered the race and was deemed to be an unbeatable candidate. Haughey and Boland withdrew in support of Lynch, however, Colley forced a contest. He was defeated heavily with Lynch becoming party leader and Taoiseach. In the subsequent cabinet reshuffle Blaney was appointed [[Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine|Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries]].

==Arms Crisis==
{{more citations needed|section|date=June 2021}}
{{main article|Arms Crisis}}
{{Irish republicanism|People}}
In 1969, when conflict broke out in [[Northern Ireland]], Blaney was one of the first to express strong Irish republican views in support of Northern nationalists, views which contradicted the policy of the Irish Government. Blaney was a native of [[Ulster]], and was affected by the outbreak of violence in parts of his home province. He was concerned about the plight of the Nationalist majority in West [[County Tyrone|Tyrone]] and in [[Derry]], areas that bordered his constituency in West Ulster. From around late 1968 onwards, Blaney formed and presided over an unofficial [[Irish nationalism|Nationalist]] group in [[Leinster House]] popularly known as 'the [[Letterkenny]] Table', so named because this group of politicians used to meet at a certain table in either the Dáil bar or the Dáil restaurant. The group was dominated by Blaney up until his death. He had also been one of a four-member Cabinet sub-committee set up to decide on government policy to Northern Ireland together with [[Charles Haughey]], [[Pádraig Faulkner]], and [[Joseph Brennan (Fianna Fáil politician)|Joseph Brennan]]. A fund of £100,000 was set up to give to the nationalist people in the form of aid. However, those involved have denied that the government supported the importation of arms.

In December 1969 Blaney declared in Donegal that "the Fianna Fáil Party has never taken a decision to rule out the use of force if the circumstances in the Six Counties so demanded".<ref>{{cite web |title=Jack Lynch and the defence of democracy in Ireland, August 1969-June 1970 |url=https://historyireland.com/jack-lynch-and-the-defence-of-democracy-in-ireland-august-1969-june-1970/ |publisher=[[History Ireland]]}}</ref>

There was general surprise when, in an incident known as the [[Arms Crisis]], Blaney, along with Haughey, was sacked from Taoiseach [[Jack Lynch]]'s cabinet amid allegations of the use of the funds to import arms for use by the new emergent [[Provisional IRA]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/tv/hiddenhistory/irelandsnazispart2.html |title=RTÉ Television – Hidden History |website=[[RTÉ.ie]] |access-date=9 March 2007 |archive-date=25 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090125081047/http://www.rte.ie/tv/hiddenhistory/irelandsnazispart2.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Opposition leader [[Liam Cosgrave]] was informed by the [[Garda Síochána|Garda]] that a plot to import arms existed and included government members. Cosgrave told Lynch he knew of the plot and would announce it in the Dáil next day if he did not act. Lynch asked for Haughey and Blaney's resignations. Both men refused, saying they did nothing illegal. Lynch then advised President de Valera to sack Haughey and Blaney from the government. [[Kevin Boland]] resigned in sympathy, while [[Mícheál Ó Móráin]] was dismissed one day earlier in a preemptive strike to ensure that he was not the Minister for Justice when the crisis broke. Lynch chose government chief whip [[Des O'Malley]] for the role. Haughey and Blaney were subsequently tried in court along with an army Officer, [[James Kelly (Irish Army officer)|Captain James Kelly]], and [[Albert Luykx]], a [[Belgian people|Belgian]] businessman who allegedly used his contacts to buy the arms. At trial, all the accused were acquitted, but many of their critics refused to recognise the verdict of the courts. Although Blaney was cleared of wrongdoing, his ministerial career was brought to an end.

Lynch subsequently moved against Blaney so as to isolate him in the party. He was defeated by [[George Colley]] in a vote for the position of Joint Honorary Treasurer at the 1971 [[Ardfheis]], while his constituency colleague, [[Liam Cunningham (politician)|Liam Cunningham]], had been appointed a Parliamentary Secretary in the cabinet reshuffle. In the Dáil, Blaney abstained on a [[motion of no confidence]] on the worthiness of cabinet minister [[Jim Gibbons (Irish politician)|Jim Gibbons]] for office, sponsored by the opposition. [[Paudge Brennan]] and [[Des Foley]] acted similarly and, while the government survived, they were all expelled from the parliamentary party. When Blaney and his supporters tried to organise the party's national collection independently, Lynch acted, and in 1972 Blaney was expelled from the Fianna Fáil party for 'conduct unbecoming'.

==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.

==Legacy==
Irish historian Patrick Maume summarised Blaney's career by noting 
{{Blockquote|“the ruthless authoritarianism which marked his career [and] his effectiveness as administrator and party fixer. The volatile mixture of calculation, resentment, sophistication, provincialism, ruthlessness, and nostalgia which he displayed is reminiscent of other political figures of his intermediate generation; he might well have been taoiseach but instead became a catalyst for the formation of the Provisional IRA”.<ref name="DIB">{{cite web |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/blaney-neil-terence-columba-a0731 |title=Blaney, Neil Terence Columba |last=Maume |first=Patrick |date=October 2009 |website=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]] |publisher= |access-date=30 September 2022 |quote=}}</ref><ref name="Maye">{{cite news |last=Maye |first=Brian |date=29 September 2022 |title=A controversial but enormously successful public representative: Brian Maye on Neil Blaney |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2022/09/29/a-controversial-but-enormously-successful-public-representative-brian-maye-on-neil-blaney/ |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |location= |access-date=30 September 2022}}</ref>}}

A road in [[Letterkenny]] is named the Neil T. Blaney Road in his honour. He is buried in [[Sutton, Dublin|Sutton]].

==See also==
*[[Families in the Oireachtas]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{MEP|1019|Neil Blaney}}

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{{s-bef|before = [[Michael Keyes]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Minister for Posts and Telegraphs]]
       |years  = 1957}}
{{s-aft|after  = [[John Ormonde]]}}
{{s-bef|before = [[Patrick Smith (politician)|Paddy Smith]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Minister for Local Government]]
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{{s-aft|after  = [[Kevin Boland]]}}
{{s-bef|before = [[Charles Haughey]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine|Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries]]
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{{s-aft|after  = [[Jim Gibbons (Irish politician)|Jim Gibbons]]}}
{{s-hon}}
{{s-bef|before = [[Oliver J. Flanagan]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Baby of the House#Ireland|Baby of the Dáil]]
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{{s-aft|after  = [[William J. Murphy (Labour politician)|William J. Murphy]]}}
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{{s-ttl|title  = [[Father of the Dáil]]
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{{s-aft|after  = [[Séamus Pattison]]}}
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