Desmond O'Malley
Desmond Joseph O'Malley was an Irish politician who served as Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1977 to 1981 and 1989 to 1992, Leader of the Progressive Democrats from 1985 to 1993, Minister for Trade, Commerce and Tourism from March 1982 to October 1982, Minister for Justice from 1970 to 1973 and Government Chief Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence from 1969 to 1970. He served as a Teachta Dála for the Limerick East constituency from 1968 to 2002.
A prominent Fianna Fáil member and government minister in the 1970s and 1980s, O'Malley was expelled from the party in 1985. He founded the Progressive Democrats and served as the party's first leader from 1985 until 1993. He retired from politics at the 2002 general election.
Early life
O'Malley was born in Limerick in 1939. His family had long been involved in politics: His maternal grandfather, Denis O'Donovan, was killed during the War of Independence by the Black and Tans, two of his uncles and his father held the office of Mayor of Limerick, and his uncle Donogh O'Malley was a Minister for Education.O'Malley was educated at the Jesuit Crescent College and at University College Dublin, from which he graduated with a degree in law in 1962.
He was married to Pat McAleer, who predeceased him in 2017. They had six children, 4 daughters and two sons, including Fiona O'Malley.
Entering politics
In 1968, his uncle and sitting TD Donogh O'Malley died suddenly. Initially, Donogh's widow Hilda was asked by Fianna Fáil to stand in the coming by-election to try and retain the seat for the party. However, as Hilda was still in shock because of her husband's sudden death she declined and instead, after a canvass of many O'Malleys, Desmond O'Malley was selected and he stood in the subsequent by-election to fill the vacant seat. Desmond was successful and was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Limerick East constituency. At the time it was believed that this by-election victory by just 900 votes was partly due to Neil Blaney and his "Donegal Mafia". Blaney would subsequently deeply regret aiding O'Malley in his election as he always felt that Des was in the wrong party. The relationship between Desmond and Hilda was strained following Desmond's victory after Hilda had a change of heart about entering politics. She requested that Desmond stand aside in the 1969 general election in favour of her becoming the main Fianna Fáil candidate, but Desmond refused. Both Desmond and Hilda stood in Limerick East in that 1969 Election, with Desmond for Fianna Fáil and Hilda as an Independent. Desmond came third while Hilda finished fifth in the four-seat constituency. Desmond was elected while Hilda just missed out. The "O'Malley vs O'Malley" dynamic of what was a very acrimonious contest drew enormous interest and discussion, to the point of attracting international headlines.Arms Crisis and Minister for Justice
After the 1969 general election, O'Malley was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Jim Gibbons. O'Malley had a central role in the case for the prosecution against the government ministers Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney that arose from the Arms Crisis of 1970. Both ministers were acquitted in a trial at the Central Criminal Court.It has been alleged by numerous scholars that O'Malley was aware of alleged efforts by Taoiseach Jack Lynch's efforts to procure arms for northern Nationalists, to be kept under lock and key at a secure location at a monastery in County Cavan, and the training of young men, hand-picked by the Citizens' Defence Committees to be instructed in their use by the Irish Defence Forces. This is subject to much controversy and there is no agreement for this.
It has been further alleged that O'Malley was aware of a ministerial memo that stated:
A transport of army trucks with 500 rifles, 80,000 rounds of ammunition and respirators was indeed sent to the North but did not cross the border, in April 1970, instead the trucks were parked at Aitken barracks in Dundalk. Owing to a lack of sufficient space, all but 150 rifles were returned south immediately, and the remainder in May 1970, ostensibly due to a fear the barracks could be raided by the IRA. As O'Malley was a junior minister in the Dept. of Defence, it is highly unlikely that he was not aware of the relevant handwritten memo suggesting their removal from Aitken Barracks. This memo, as with the one above, was not admitted as evidence at the Arms Trial, perhaps because it might have aroused suspicion as to the Irish Department of Defence's intentions in moving so many weapons and for what purpose. It has been suggested that the arms were to be temporarily stored there whilst Captain James Kelly procured the intended weapons from Germany, under instruction from the Defence Minister, Jim Gibbons and the Army Director of Intelligence, Colonel Michael Hefferon.
In 1970, O'Malley succeeded Mícheál Ó Móráin as Minister for Justice. At age 31, O'Malley was the youngest Minister for Justice since Kevin O'Higgins who had presided over the tumultuous post-revolutionary period in Ireland in the 1920s following the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.
It has also been alleged that O'Malley had later become aware of IRA Chief of Staff Seán Mac Stíofáin's status as a 'misinformer', who whilst on the Gárda payroll fed misinformation to the Gárda Special Branch intelligence directorate known as C3.
O’Malley knew that there was an informer because he mentions this fact in his memoirs – where he reveals that the Garda received a "tip-off" from an informer about the arms importation attempt that sparked the Arms Crisis of 1970. The informer was Seán Mac Stíofáin, who did so to discredit the Jack Lynch government and prevent the development of a potential rival military organisation - the Citizens' Defence Committees. Mac Stíofáin had sourced superior weapons independently from the United States and wished to eliminate the possibility of these weapons falling into the hands of his arch rival, Cathal Goulding, the leader of the Marxist rump faction, the Official IRA, whom the media alleged the weapons were destined for. Curiously, in Taoiseach Jack Lynch's account given to Dáil Éireann, in which no informer is mentioned and that the arms were discovered quite by accident by Dublin Airport Staff.
As Minister for Justice, O'Malley reinforced the Offences Against the State Act so that a person could be convicted of IRA membership on the word of a Garda Superintendent. He also introduced the Special Criminal Court, a juryless court presided over by three judges which tries cases of terrorism and serious organised crime, with the cited raison d'être being to avoid witness intimidation. O'Malley's plans to introduce internment without trial for Provisional IRA suspects in the Republic were not implemented, but following an assassination threat by the IRA he was permitted to carry a handgun at all times and was frequently moved from house to house.
O'Malley also introduced the Forcible Entry Bill, brought in to counter student agitation over the demolition of valued buildings. This move was bitterly despised by students in University College Dublin, who pelted him with eggs during a meeting in retaliation.
Journalists sympathetic to the Official IRA and its political wing, Sinn Féin The Workers Party, in both The Irish Times and RTÉ, such as Dick Walsh, Seán Cronin, Gerry Gregg and Eoghan Harris claimed that, despite being acquitted of wrongdoing, Charles Haughey helped establish the Provisional IRA through the illegal importation of arms and lionized Taoiseach Jack Lynch and Des O'Malley as the defenders of constitutional democracy, with the latter forming the Progressive Democrats, when in fact Lynch quite lawfully ordered the importation of the arms, very likely with O'Malley's knowledge and that of others. But given the poor relations between the British and Irish governments at the time, to admit such would have been incendiary. Official IRA supporters in the media reviled the Provisional IRA and laid the blame for the 1970 split at the door of Charles Haughey, whom they accused of importing the arms to foment that very split, as Fianna Fáil feared a leftwing political competitor. Seán Mac Stíofáin's IRA rapidly eclipsed the 'Officials' in men and manpower and the Official IRA declared a permanent ceasefire in 1972. Onwards into the 1980s and 1990s, other Irish Times luminaries, such as Fintan O'Toole, held to this myth as an explanation to the origin of the 1970 split, owing to a deep antipathy towards Charles Haughey personally and by contrast, Des O'Malley's stature as a paragon of virtue. But O'Malley's failure to act on intelligence concerning Seán Mac Stíofáin's activities would have exposed him as incompetent, in addition to untruthful concerning his knowledge of Jack Lynch's role in the importation of arms. Not until Seán Mac Stíofáin's role as a informer was revealed did the political narrative changed.