Brian Lenihan Snr
Brian Patrick Lenihan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served in a number of ministerial positions spanning four decades from the 1960s to 1990s, and was Tánaiste from 1987 to 1990. He served as a Teachta Dála from 1961 to 1973 and from 1977 to 1995, and was a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from 1957 to 1961 and 1973 to 1977. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Oireachtas from 1973 to 1977. In the 1990 presidential election, he unsuccessfully stood as Fianna Fáil's presidential candidate.
He was a member of a family political dynasty; his father, Patrick Lenihan, and sister both followed him into Dáil Éireann; his sister Mary O'Rourke sitting in cabinet with him. Two of his sons, Brian Lenihan Jnr and Conor Lenihan, became TDs in the 1990s. Brian Lenihan Jnr served as Minister for Finance and Conor was Minister of State in the government of Taoiseach Brian Cowen. Two phrases associated with Lenihan Snr, No problem and On mature recollection, entered the Irish political lexicon.
Early life
Born in Dundalk, County Louth, Lenihan was the son of Patrick Lenihan and Anne Scanlon. His father had been active in the Irish Republican Army, which saw action during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. He had been an admirer of Michael Collins and took the pro-Treaty side in 1922, before later returning to his studies and qualifying as a teacher.Lenihan, who was one of five children, grew up in Athlone. He was educated at Marist College in the town before later studying law at University College Dublin, where he was actively involved in the Law Society as a Committee Member, and also played football for UCD, scoring against Sligo Rovers in the 1952–1953 FAI Cup. He later qualified as a barrister from King's Inns. He then practised law for a few years before becoming a full-time politician.
Political career
Beginnings
Lenihan first entered politics in 1954, when he ran as a Fianna Fáil candidate in Longford–Westmeath in that year's general election. Of the four Fianna Fáil candidates, Lenihan was the only one not to be elected.Three years later Lenihan contested the 1957 general election, this time in the Roscommon constituency. Although he received more first preferences than any of the other Fianna Fáil candidates, he lost out on a Dáil seat once again. In spite of this, he was elected to the Seanad for the Industrial and Commercial Panel in 1957
After four years as a senator, Lenihan finally secured a seat in Dáil Éireann, following his success at the 1961 general election in Roscommon. He had the distinction of being made a Parliamentary Secretary on his first day in the Dáil as a TD, serving under both Minister for Lands Mícheál Ó Móráin and Minister for Justice Charles Haughey.
Minister for Justice
A cabinet reshuffle saw Lenihan join the cabinet of Seán Lemass in 1964, as Minister for Justice. His predecessor in the office, Charles Haughey, systematically reviewed, repealed or amended Acts dating back 700 years in the single largest reform of the Irish civil and criminal code ever undertaken. Lenihan carried the legislative programme, covering everything from repealing mediæval laws to granting succession rights to married women. As Minister, it was Lenihan who repealed Ireland's notorious censorship laws. Controversially he also suggested that Ireland should rejoin the Commonwealth of Nations, though it is unclear whether that suggestion actually reflected his opinion or whether he was simply raising the issue at Lemass's request to gauge public reaction.Minister for Education
In 1968, Lemass's successor Jack Lynch appointed Lenihan as Minister for Education. As Minister, he controversially proposed the merger of Dublin's two universities, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. The scheme was abandoned after mass opposition, Lenihan famously being forced to flee student protests in Trinity through a toilet window. Lenihan was also Minister during a 19-day secondary teachers' strike in February 1969.Minister for Transport and Power
Following the 1969 general election, Fianna Fáil returned to power for a fourth successive term of office. Lenihan had hopes of further promotion within the cabinet, however, his appointment as Minister for Transport and Power was largely seen as a demotion.Minister for Foreign Affairs
In 1973, Patrick Hillery was appointed as Ireland's European Commissioner, upon the Irish entry to the European Economic Community. Lenihan then finally secured his much sought-after portfolio, that of Minister for Foreign Affairs. His tenure was short-lived, as the government fell and a new Fine Gael-Labour Party government took office, following the 1973 general election.Political return
Lenihan also dramatically lost his Roscommon–Leitrim seat. He once again became a Senator, becoming his party's leader in the upper house. In 1973, he was appointed a member of the second delegation from the Oireachtas to the European Parliament.He moved his political base from rural Roscommon to Dublin West, where he was elected as a TD at the 1977 general election, which saw a landslide victory for Fianna Fáil. Jack Lynch appointed him Minister for Forestry and Fisheries.
At Lynch's retirement in 1979, Fianna Fáil saw a leadership battle between Charles Haughey and George Colley. Lenihan dismissed the choice as being between a "knave and a fool". He also described himself as being the "x in Oxo". He was believed to have backed Colley. Years later he claimed he had actually supported Haughey, but not everyone accepted this assertion.
Haughey, seeking to weaken the faction supporting Colley, appointed Lenihan as Minister for Foreign Affairs, a post he held until Fianna Fáil lost power in 1981. His period in Foreign Affairs was overshadowed by a comment made after an Anglo-Irish summit between Haughey and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, when he spoke of Britain and Ireland being able to bring about Irish unity within ten years, a comment which infuriated the British and Northern Ireland unionists and which undid much of the goodwill achieved by the summit. His comments, at a time of major problems within Northern Ireland, with the Provisional IRA and Irish National Liberation Army campaigns in full swing along with Ulster Defence Association and other loyalists conducting reprisals were widely criticised in the Irish media as insensitive, especially as Irish unity had not even been on the agenda of the summit. One newspaper columnist commented simply "there goes Brian, pointlessly talking himself into trouble again". In 1982, when Fianna Fáil regained power for what would prove only ten months, Lenihan was appointed Minister for Agriculture, the announcement in the Dáil being greeted by a sustained round of laughter on the opposition benches.
Anglo-Irish Agreement opposition
In opposition, Lenihan and Haughey attracted some international criticism when, against the advice of senior Irish-American politicians Senator Edward Kennedy and Speaker Tip O'Neill, they campaigned against the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which the government of Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald had signed with the British government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The agreement gave Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In 1987, Fianna Fáil returned to power and Lenihan was for the third and final time appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, with the additional post of Tánaiste. In power Haughey and Lenihan reversed their opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Lenihan attending meetings of the Anglo-Irish Conference which the Ireland's Foreign Minister and the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland co-chaired.Liver transplant
Lenihan's last period as Minister for Foreign Affairs was overshadowed by his serious ill-health. A long-standing liver problem had developed into a life-threatening issue requiring a liver transplant. Lenihan, previously a large-framed man, had been reduced to a bone-thin jaundiced-looking shadow of his former self, so ill-looking that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Tom King, said afterwards that on seeing Lenihan at an Anglo-Irish Conference meeting, he had speculated as to whether Lenihan would die at the meeting. In May 1989, Lenihan underwent the liver transplant at Mayo Clinic in the United States. In his absence he was re-elected to the Dáil in the 1989 general election for Dublin West, after which, while remaining Tánaiste, he was made Minister for Defence. Lenihan returned to Irish politics with a new lease of life. When he entered the Dáil chamber he received an ovation, an indication of his personal cross-party popularity.It was revealed subsequently that Lenihan's operation was partly paid for through fundraising by Taoiseach Charles Haughey, from businessmen with Fianna Fáil links. In evidence to the Moriarty Tribunal investigating Haughey's finances, it was established that much of the money raised but not ultimately needed for the operation was redirected by Haughey into his own personal bank account. Haughey was revealed in the 2006 tribunal report to have been engaged in numerous acts of corruption, to finance a lifestyle considerably in excess of his earnings as a politician.
Presidential candidate
In January 1990, leaks to the media suggested that Lenihan was considering seeking the Fianna Fáil nomination in the 1990 presidential election, which was due in November 1990. Speculation abounded that this was part of a plan to discourage other parties from running candidates in the belief that Lenihan would prove unbeatable and so get the office unopposed. Labour Party leader Dick Spring indicated that Labour would run a candidate for the presidency, even if he had to stand himself. Ultimately, Labour chose former Senator Mary Robinson as its candidate.Lenihan was generally perceived as an unbeatable candidate, though he did receive a late challenge for the nomination from cabinet colleague John Wilson. However, in September 1990, Lenihan was formally nominated as his party's candidate. The main opposition party, Fine Gael chose Austin Currie, a TD and former Northern Ireland cabinet minister, to be its candidate.