33 Facts About Neil Blaney

Neil Terence Columba Blaney was an Irish politician.

Neil Blaney was first elected to Dail Eireann in 1948 as a Fianna Fail Teachta Dala representing Donegal East.

In 1970 Neil Blaney's career was radically altered when, alongside Charles Haughey, he was involved in the Arms Crisis and stood accused of clandestinely arranging to provide weapons to the newly-emergent Provisional Irish Republican Army.

Neil Blaney was a holder of both offices when he died in 1995.

Neil Blaney was born in 1922 in the village of Rossnakill in rural Fanad Peninsula in the north of County Donegal, in Ireland.

Neil Blaney's father served as both a TD and as a Senator from 1927 through 1948; at which point Neil Blaney succeed him in that role.

Neil Blaney was educated locally at Tamney on the rugged Fanad Peninsula and later attended St Eunan's College in Letterkenny as a boarder.

Neil Blaney later worked as an organiser with the Irish National Vintners and Grocers Association.

Neil Blaney was first elected to Dail Eireann for the Donegal East constituency in a by-election in December 1948, following the death of his father from cancer.

Neil Blaney remained on the backbenches for a number of years before he was one of a group of young party members handpicked by Sean Lemass to begin a re-organisation drive for the party following the defeat at the 1954 general election.

Neil Blaney introduced the concept of cavalcades after his election victories in his constituency together with roadside bonfires.

Neil Blaney adopted wearing sunglasses, chewing gum and wearing bright ties and colourful suits.

Neil Blaney was appointed Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, becoming the first government minister from Donegal he moved to the position of Minister for Local Government at the end of 1957 following the death of Sean Moylan.

Neil Blaney proved to be an innovative minister and his first task as minister was to prepare the groundwork for the referendum to scrap the proportional representation electoral system and replace it with the first-past-the-post voting system.

The referendum failed to be passed Neil Blaney was retained in the post when Lemass succeeded de Valera as Taoiseach in 1959.

Neil Blaney's department underwent a very large programme to provide piped water to rural homes.

In 1965 Neil Blaney introduced the Road Traffic Act which required that motorists take a driving test in roadworthy cars.

Neil Blaney was unimpressed with the choice and, with the support of the like-minded Kevin Boland, he threw his hat in the ring, declaring himself to be the "Radical Republican" candidate.

However outside the Northwest and apart from Boland, Neil Blaney failed to attract much support.

Neil Blaney was defeated heavily with Lynch becoming party leader and Taoiseach.

In 1969, when conflict broke out in Northern Ireland, Neil Blaney was one of the first to express strong Irish republican views in support of Northern nationalists, views which contradicted the policy of the Irish Government.

Neil Blaney was a native of Ulster, and was affected by the outbreak of violence in parts of his home province.

Neil Blaney was concerned about the plight of the Nationalist majority in West Tyrone and in Derry, areas that bordered his constituency in West Ulster.

Neil Blaney had been one of a four-member Cabinet sub-committee set up to decide on government policy to Northern Ireland together with Charles Haughey, Padraig Faulkner, and Joseph Brennan.

Haughey and Neil Blaney were subsequently tried in court along with an army Officer, Captain James Kelly, and Albert Luykx, a Belgian businessman who allegedly used his contacts to buy the arms.

Neil Blaney was defeated by George Colley in a vote for the position of Joint Honorary Treasurer at the 1971 Ardfheis, while his constituency colleague, Liam Cunningham, had been appointed a Parliamentary Secretary in the cabinet reshuffle.

Neil Blaney sat in the Technical Group of Independents and served as chair of the group along with the Italian Radical Marco Pannella and Danish left-wing Eurosceptic Jens-Peter Bonde.

Neil Blaney narrowly lost the seat at the 1984 election but was returned to serve as an MEP in 1989 election where he sat with the regionalist Rainbow Group.

Neil Blaney canvassed for IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election, in which Sands was elected to Westminster.

Neil Blaney contracted cancer from which he died at the age of 73 on 8 November 1995.

Neil Blaney held his Dail seat until his death and was the reigning Father of the Dail at that time.

Neil Blaney's death occurred at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin.

Neil Blaney was replaced by his son, Niall Blaney, who was elected at the 2002 general election.