Hugh Gerard Sweetman was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Finance from 1954 to 1957.
16 Facts About Gerard Sweetman
2.
Gerard Sweetman served as a Teachta Dala for the Kildare constituency from 1948 to 1970.
3.
Gerard Sweetman was a Senator for the Labour Panel from 1943 to 1948.
4.
Gerard Sweetman's father, James Sweetman, was a practising barrister, and the family's return for the 1911 census shows that they employed three servants at their Lower Baggot Street home.
5.
Gerard Sweetman was educated at the Downside School in England.
6.
Gerard Sweetman completed his studies at Trinity College Dublin and went on to qualify as a solicitor in 1930.
7.
Gerard Sweetman's first brush with politics came with his involvement with the Blueshirts: He was a member of the League of Youth, one of their youth wings, and was elected to Blueshirt's national council in August 1935.
8.
Three weeks after his 29th birthday, Gerard Sweetman contested the 1937 general election.
9.
Gerard Sweetman did not contest the 1938 general election but ran again in 1943, and failed to secure election.
10.
Gerard Sweetman secured a Seanad seat in weeks that followed, and remained in the upper house through the 1944 election, until finally, with the creation of a separate Kildare constituency, he won a Dail seat at the 1948 general election.
11.
Gerard Sweetman served as a member of Kildare County Council, including a term as chairman of the Council in the late 1940s.
12.
Gerard Sweetman was now 45 years old, and he inherited a national economy that was in crisis.
13.
Gerard Sweetman differed in his thinking from the protectionist policies espoused by Eamon de Valera since the 1930s.
14.
Rather than focussing on a self-sufficient Ireland, Gerard Sweetman enacted policies that would make Ireland a net exporter.
15.
Gerard Sweetman established the Prize Bonds programme as a means of reducing the national debt.
16.
Gerard Sweetman was known for his high-speed style of driving.