Noel Christopher Browne was an Irish politician who served as Minister for Health from 1948 to 1951 and Leader of the National Progressive Democrats from 1958 to 1963.
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31 Facts About Noel Browne
2.
Noel Browne served as a Teachta Dala from 1948 to 1954,1957 to 1973 and 1977 to 1982.
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4.
Noel Browne holds the distinction of being one of only seven TDs to be appointed to the cabinet on the start of their first term in the Dail.
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6.
The Noel Browne family lived in Athlone and Ballinrobe for a period of time.
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7.
Noel Browne's mother Mary Therese, nee Cooney was born in 1885 in Hollymount, County Mayo; a plaque has been erected there in her memory.
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9.
Noel Browne recovered, passed his medical exams in 1942, and started his career as a medical intern at Dr Steevens' Hospital in Dublin, where he worked under Bethel Solomons Noel Browne subsequently worked in numerous sanatoria throughout Ireland and England, witnessing the ravages of the disease.
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10.
Noel Browne soon concluded that politics was the only way in which he could make an attack on the scourge of tuberculosis.
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11.
Noel Browne considered both his survival and his level of education a complete fluke, a stroke of random chance that saved him when he was seemingly destined to die unknown and in poverty like the rest of his family.
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12.
Noel Browne found this completely distasteful and was moved to enter politics as a means to ensure no one else would suffer the same fate that had befallen his family.
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13.
Noel Browne joined the new Irish republican party Clann na Poblachta and was elected to Dail Eireann for the Dublin South-East constituency at the 1948 general election.
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14.
Noel Browne became one of the few TDs appointed a Minister on their first day in Dail Eireann, when he was appointed Minister for Health.
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15.
In February 1948, Noel Browne became Minister for Health and started the reforms advocated by the Paper and introduced by the Act.
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16.
Noel Browne introduced mass free screening for tuberculosis sufferers and launched a huge construction program to build new hospitals and sanitoria, financed by the income and accumulated investments from the Health Department-controlled Hospital Sweeps funds.
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17.
Noel Browne was the only government Minister to attend the 1949 Church of Ireland funeral of Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland.
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18.
Noel Browne gave his version of events in his resignation speech to the Dail on 12 April 1951.
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19.
Noel Browne joined Fianna Fail in 1953, but lost his Dail seat at the 1954 general election.
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20.
Noel Browne failed to be selected as a candidate for the 1957 general election and he resigned from the party.
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21.
Noel Browne was re-elected at that election for Dublin South-East as an Independent TD.
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22.
Noel Browne held on to his seat at the 1961 general election, but in 1963, he and McQuillan joined the Labour Party, disbanding the National Progressive Democrats.
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23.
Noel Browne was re-elected as a Labour Party TD at the 1969 general election, again for Dublin South-East.
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24.
Noel Browne did not seek a nomination by the Labour Party for the 1973 general election, but instead won a seat in Seanad Eireann for Dublin University.
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25.
Noel Browne remained in the Seanad until the 1977 general election, when he gained the Dublin Artane seat as an Independent Labour TD, having again failed to get the Party nomination.
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26.
In 1977 Noel Browne was the first Irish parliamentarian to call for law reforms in regards to homosexuality, and in 1979 was one of the few Irish politicians to attend the opening of the Hirschfeld Centre, Dublin's first full-time LGBT community space.
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27.
Noel Browne retired from politics at the February 1982 general election.
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28.
In 1990, a number of left-wing representatives within the Labour Party, led by Michael D Higgins, approached Browne and suggested that he should be the party's candidate in the presidential election due later that year.
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29.
Noel Browne spent the remaining seven years of his life constantly criticising Robinson who had gone on to win the election, thus becoming the seventh President of Ireland, and who was considered highly popular during her term.
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30.
Noel Browne further alienated the middle ground in 1986, with the publishing of his autobiography Against the Tide which became what the Irish Times called a "publishing sensation" and sold over 80 thousand copies in short order.
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31.
Historian and political scientist Maurice Manning wrote that Noel Browne "had the capacity to inspire fierce loyalty, but many of those who worked with and against him over the years found him difficult, self-centred, unwilling to accept the good faith of his opponents and often profoundly unfair in his intolerance of those who disagreed with him".
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