Oliver J. Flanagan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister for Defence | |
| In office 16 December 1976 – 5 July 1977 | |
| Taoiseach | Liam Cosgrave |
| Preceded by | Liam Cosgrave |
| Succeeded by | Bobby Molloy |
| Parliamentary Secretary | |
| 1975–1976 | Local Government |
| 1954–1957 | Agriculture |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office June 1943 – February 1987 | |
| Constituency | Laois-Offaly |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Oliver James Flanagan 22 May 1920 Mountmellick, County Laois, Ireland |
| Died | 26 April 1987 (aged 66) County Laois, Ireland |
| Political party |
|
| Spouse |
May McWey (m. 1947) |
| Children | 4, including Charles |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin |
Oliver James Flanagan (22 May 1920 – 26 April 1987) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Defence from 1976 to 1977 and as a Parliamentary Secretary from 1954 to 1957 and from 1975 to 1976. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Laois-Offaly constituency from 1943 to 1987.
He was elected to the Dáil fourteen times between 1943 and 1982, topping the poll on almost every occasion.[1] He was Father of the Dáil from 1977 until his retirement in 1987,[2][3] and remains one of the longest-serving members in the history of the Dáil.
Flanagan was a social conservative, who famously claimed that "there was no sex in Ireland before television".[4] An anti-semite and anti-Mason, he used his maiden speech in the Dáil, on 9 July 1943, to urge the government to emulate the Nazis and "rout the Jews out of this country... where the bees are there is honey, and where the Jews are there is money" and called for the banning of the Freemasons.[5]
Nonetheless, he was consistently popular in his own constituency, largely because of the attention he paid to individual voters' petitions and concerns. He has been described as "one of the cutest of cute hoors in the history of the Dáil".[6]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
elecs_irlwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Oliver J. Flanagan". Oireachtas Members Database. 9 December 1986. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
- ^ "Dáil Éireann debates, Vol. 96 (25 April 1945)". Houses of the Oireachtas. 25 April 1945. Archived from the original on 19 July 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
- ^ Tovey, Hilary; Share, Perry (2000). A Sociology of Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. p. 259.
- ^ "Emergency Powers (Continuance) Bill, 1943—Second Stage (Resumed) – Dáil Éireann (11th Dáil) – Vol. 91 No. 5". Houses of the Oireachtas. 9 July 1943. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
- ^ Kerrigan, Gene; Brennan, Pat (1999). This Great Little Nation. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. p. 190.