Tomás MacGiolla
Encyclopedia
Tomás Mac Giolla was an Irish
politician. He was a Teachta Dála
(TD) and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers' Party of Ireland
.
, County Tipperary
. His uncle T. P. Gill
was an Member of Parliament
(MP) and member of the Irish Parliamentary Party
of Charles Stewart Parnell
. Tomás's father Robert also stood unsuccessfully for election on a number of occasions. His mother was Mary Hourigan.
Mac Giolla was educated at the local national school in Nenagh before completing his secondary education at St. Flannan's College
, Ennis
, County Clare
. It was while at St. Flannan's that he changed to using the Irish language version of his name. He won a scholarship to University College Dublin
where he qualified with a Bachelor of Arts degree, followed by a degree in Commerce.
A qualified accountant
, Mac Giolla was employed by the Irish Electricity Supply Board
from 1947 until he went into full time politics in 1977.
In his early life Mac Giolla was an active republican
. He joined Sinn Féin
and the Irish Republican Army
(IRA) around 1950. He was interned by the Irish government
during the IRA Border campaign of 1956 to 1962. He also served a number of prison sentences in Mountjoy Prison
, Dublin.
, Mac Giolla unsuccessfully contested the Tipperary North constituency for Sinn Féin
.
In 1962 he became president of Sinn Féin and was one of the people who successfully pushed the party to the left during the 1960s. In 1969 Sinn Féin split and Mac Giolla remained leader of Official Sinn Féin. It was also in 1962 that Tomás married May McLoughlin who was also an active member of Sinn Féin and Cumann na mBan
, the women's section of the IRA.
In 1977 the party changed its name to Sinn Féin the Workers Party and in 1982 it became simply the Workers' Party
.
Mac Giolla was elected to Dublin City Council
representing the Ballyfermot
local electoral area
in 1979 and at every subsequent local election until he retired from the council in 1997. In the November 1982 general election Mac Giolla was elected to Dáil Éireann
for his party. In 1988 he retired as party leader and was succeeded by Proinsias De Rossa
.
While president he was regarded as a mediator between the Marxist-Leninist wing headed by Sean Garland
and the social-democratic wing of Prionsias de Rossa. At the 1992 special Ard Fheis he voted for the motion to abandon democratic centralism
and to re-constitute the party much like the Communist Party of Italy
. However the motion failed to reach the required two-thirds majority and after the departure of six Workers' Party TDs led by De Rossa to form the new Democratic Left
party in 1992, Mac Giolla was the sole member of the Workers' Party in the Dáil. He lost his Dáil seat at the general election later that year
by a margin of just 59 votes to Liam Lawlor
of Fianna Fáil
. In 1999 Mac Giolla wrote to the chairman of the Flood Tribunal calling for an investigation into revelations that former Dublin Assistant City and County Manager George Redmond had been the official supervisor at the election count in Dublin West and was a close associate of Liam Lawlor. In 2003 Redmond was convicted of corruption by a Dublin court but subsequently had his conviction quashed due to conflicting evidence.
In 1979, Mac Giolla was elected to Dublin Corporation
for the Ballyfermot
area. He was re-elected in 1985 and 1991. He served as Lord Mayor of Dublin
from 1993 to 1994 and remained a member of Dublin Corporation until 1998.
In his eighties Mac Giolla continued to be active and was a member of the group which campaigned to save No. 16 Moore Street in Dublin city centre where the surrender of Patrick Pearse
was completed. He also served on the Dublin '98 committee to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1798 Rebellion
.
He died in Beaumont Hospital
in Dublin on 4 February 2010 after a long illness.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
politician. He was a Teachta Dála
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...
(TD) and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers' Party of Ireland
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
.
Early life
He was born Thomas Gill in NenaghNenagh
Nenagh is the county town of North Tipperary in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of North Tipperary and in 2011 it had a recorded population of 7,995. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Ormond Lower...
, County Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
. His uncle T. P. Gill
T. P. Gill
Thomas Patrick Gill was a prominent member of the Irish Parliamentary Party in the late 19th and early 20th century and a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons representing the South Louth constituency unopposed from 1885 to 1892. His uncle Peter was an unsuccessful election...
was an Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) and member of the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
of Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
. Tomás's father Robert also stood unsuccessfully for election on a number of occasions. His mother was Mary Hourigan.
Mac Giolla was educated at the local national school in Nenagh before completing his secondary education at St. Flannan's College
St. Flannan's College
Saint Flannan's College is an Irish secondary school located in Ennis, County Clare. Formerly an all-boys boarding school, the first girls class was entered in 2002 and in 2005 the boarding school was closed. In 2003 an extension which added over 20 new rooms to the college was completed...
, Ennis
Ennis
Ennis is the county town of Clare in Ireland. Situated on the River Fergus, it lies north of Limerick and south of Galway. Its name is a shortening of the original ....
, County Clare
County Clare
-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...
. It was while at St. Flannan's that he changed to using the Irish language version of his name. He won a scholarship to University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
where he qualified with a Bachelor of Arts degree, followed by a degree in Commerce.
A qualified accountant
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
, Mac Giolla was employed by the Irish Electricity Supply Board
Electricity Supply Board
The Electricity Supply Board , is a semi-state electricity company in Ireland. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concern in a liberalised and competitive market...
from 1947 until he went into full time politics in 1977.
In his early life Mac Giolla was an active republican
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. He joined Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
and the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)
The original Irish Republican Army fought a guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland in the Irish War of Independence 1919–1921. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, the IRA in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and...
(IRA) around 1950. He was interned by the Irish government
Irish Government
The Government of Ireland is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland.-Members of the Government:Membership of the Government is regulated fundamentally by the Constitution of Ireland. The Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach...
during the IRA Border campaign of 1956 to 1962. He also served a number of prison sentences in Mountjoy Prison
Mountjoy Prison
Mountjoy Prison , founded as Mountjoy Gaol, nicknamed The Joy, is a medium security prison located in Phibsboro in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. It has the largest prison population in Ireland.The current prison governor is Mr...
, Dublin.
Political career
At the 1961 general electionIrish general election, 1961
The Irish general election of 1961 was held on 4 October 1961, just over three weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on 8 September. The newly elected members of the 17th Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 11 October when the new Taoiseach and government were appointed.The general election took...
, Mac Giolla unsuccessfully contested the Tipperary North constituency for Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
.
In 1962 he became president of Sinn Féin and was one of the people who successfully pushed the party to the left during the 1960s. In 1969 Sinn Féin split and Mac Giolla remained leader of Official Sinn Féin. It was also in 1962 that Tomás married May McLoughlin who was also an active member of Sinn Féin and Cumann na mBan
Cumann na mBan
Cumann na mBan is an Irish republican women's paramilitary organisation formed in Dublin on 2 April 1914 as an auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers...
, the women's section of the IRA.
In 1977 the party changed its name to Sinn Féin the Workers Party and in 1982 it became simply the Workers' Party
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
.
Mac Giolla was elected to Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council is the local authority for the city of Dublin in Ireland. It has 52 members and is the largest local authority in Ireland. Until 2001, it was known as Dublin Corporation.-Legal status:...
representing the Ballyfermot
Ballyfermot
Ballyfermot is a suburb in the city of Dublin.Celebrities such as the famous Furey Brothers and the brilliant Keenan family have all resided in Ballyfermot.Ireland, located 7 kilometres due west from the city centre, and to the south of the Phoenix Park...
local electoral area
Local electoral area
A local electoral area is a sub-division of a county and city-level local government used for electoral purposes in Ireland. Each local electoral area consists of a number of lower-level units known as district electoral divisions...
in 1979 and at every subsequent local election until he retired from the council in 1997. In the November 1982 general election Mac Giolla was elected to Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
for his party. In 1988 he retired as party leader and was succeeded by Proinsias De Rossa
Proinsias De Rossa
Proinsias De Rossa is an Irish Labour Party politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency. He a former President of the Workers' Party and subsequently leader of Democratic Left, and later, a senior member of the Labour Party. He was Minister for Social Welfare from...
.
While president he was regarded as a mediator between the Marxist-Leninist wing headed by Sean Garland
Seán Garland
Seán Garland is a former President of the Workers' Party in Ireland.-Early Life:Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in...
and the social-democratic wing of Prionsias de Rossa. At the 1992 special Ard Fheis he voted for the motion to abandon democratic centralism
Democratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
and to re-constitute the party much like the Communist Party of Italy
Communist Party of Italy
The Communist Party of Italy was a communist political party in Italy which existed from 1921 to 1926. That year it was outlawed by Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. In 1943, the name was changed to the Italian Communist Party.-Foundation:The forerunner of the party was the Communist Faction...
. However the motion failed to reach the required two-thirds majority and after the departure of six Workers' Party TDs led by De Rossa to form the new Democratic Left
Democratic Left (Ireland)
Democratic Left was a democratic socialist political party active in Ireland between 1992 and 1999. It came into being after a split in the Workers' Party and, after just seven years in existence, it merged into the Irish Labour Party.-Origins:...
party in 1992, Mac Giolla was the sole member of the Workers' Party in the Dáil. He lost his Dáil seat at the general election later that year
Irish general election, 1992
The Irish general election of 1992 was held on Wednesday, 25 November 1992, almost three weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on 5 November. However, after difficulties in forming a government the newly elected 166 members of the 27th Dáil did not assemble at Leinster House until 4 January 1993...
by a margin of just 59 votes to Liam Lawlor
Liam Lawlor
Liam Aloysius Lawlor was an Irish politician who resigned from the Fianna Fáil political party following a finding by a Party standards committee that he had failed to co-operate with its investigation into planning irregularities, and subsequently came into conflict with the Mahon Tribunal.-Early...
of Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
. In 1999 Mac Giolla wrote to the chairman of the Flood Tribunal calling for an investigation into revelations that former Dublin Assistant City and County Manager George Redmond had been the official supervisor at the election count in Dublin West and was a close associate of Liam Lawlor. In 2003 Redmond was convicted of corruption by a Dublin court but subsequently had his conviction quashed due to conflicting evidence.
In 1979, Mac Giolla was elected to Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation , known by generations of Dubliners simply as The Corpo, is the former name given to the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin between 1661 and 1 January 2002...
for the Ballyfermot
Ballyfermot
Ballyfermot is a suburb in the city of Dublin.Celebrities such as the famous Furey Brothers and the brilliant Keenan family have all resided in Ballyfermot.Ireland, located 7 kilometres due west from the city centre, and to the south of the Phoenix Park...
area. He was re-elected in 1985 and 1991. He served as Lord Mayor of Dublin
Lord Mayor of Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin is the honorific title of the Chairman of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent is Labour Party Councillor Andrew Montague. The office holder is elected annually by the members of the...
from 1993 to 1994 and remained a member of Dublin Corporation until 1998.
In his eighties Mac Giolla continued to be active and was a member of the group which campaigned to save No. 16 Moore Street in Dublin city centre where the surrender of Patrick Pearse
Patrick Pearse
Patrick Henry Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916...
was completed. He also served on the Dublin '98 committee to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1798 Rebellion
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
.
He died in Beaumont Hospital
Beaumont Hospital, Dublin
Beaumont Hospital, is a public hospital located in Beaumont, Dublin, Ireland. It is managed by the Irish Government's Health Service Executive and provides acute-care hospital services, including a 24-hour emergency department, for the population of Dublin. In 2008, the hospital served 149,559...
in Dublin on 4 February 2010 after a long illness.