Politicians who were members of more than one, two or three parties in the Oireachtas October 12, 2017
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
Perhaps mischievously the Phoenix in its current issue suggests that Katherine Zappone might wind up in Fine Gael, in part due to the electoral terrain she is likely fight the next election on. Interestingly she wasn’t a member of the Labour Party, nor of the Social Democrats, and has had the Independent badge thoughout her time in the Seanad and then Dáil. But I was wondering, what is the largest number of political identifiers including independent that any single politician has had in the Oireachtas?
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Have we done this before?
And isn’t Noel Browne the clear winner? CnaP, FF, NPD, Labour, SLP and independent?
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Hard to beat I’d say. But was he an actual TD in the Dáil while a member of each and every one of those groupings? Was he ever an FF TD?
And what was the NPD?
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Wiki says he joined FF in 53′ and lost his seat in 54′ before regaining it in 57′ and founding the NPD in 58′.
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The NPD was the National Progressive Democrats, which in hindsight sounds strange.
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National Progressive Democrats, with Jack McQuillan – think they were both TDs before they both moved to Labour.
Think NB did sit as a TD for all of these?
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Yes Browne was a TD for all those groups and seems the obvious winner of WBS’ question. He joined FF in 1953 while a TD but lost his seat in 1954. After being expelled from FF, he was elected an independent in 1957 but set up the social-democratic National Progressive Democrats in 1958 with Jack McQuillan, a likeminded former Clann na Poblachta TD from Roscommon. Both men joined the Labour Party in 1963 while TDs but lost their seats in 1965.
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Yeah, I was just curious, Browne seems to be one leading candidate, but others… Of course if we were to include parties people were members of but never elected for…
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I guess some of the Solidarity/ AAA/ SP lot would come in in seond place, as might the SFWP/ WP/ DL/ LAB contingent, but name changes of the same organisation hardly count.
Otherwise, John O’Connell was LAB/ IND./FF: can’t think of anyone who got past three – Stephen Donnelly would be contemporary example, and in double quick time.
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I can’t think of anyone else past three either. Mary Harney was FF-PD-Ind.
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Patrick Belton is an interesting example as someone who went from FF to ind to CnaG/FG relatively soon after the Civil War.
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Colonel Maurice Moore? SF-CnanG-FF.
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Maurice Moore started as an Home Ruler, stayed with Redmond when the Volunteers split, but joined SF around 1917.
In any case, his parliamentary career started only when he became an Independent senator. He supported, but does not seem to have joined C.naG., but did join its breakaway Clann Eireann , joining FF when that clan folded.
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Thanks, Raynor. There’s an amusing story about Moore being taken as a hostage and human shield by the British Army one time, and using his status and knowledge as a former British Officer to navigate the twists and turns of the bureaucracy – and essentially rescue himself.
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Slightly different question. Noel Browne probably still the answer but… who is the TD who was ELECTED for the most number of different parties? (If you see what I’m getting at… from the thread it appears Browne was never elected while a member of FF, he joined FF in mid-Dáil so to speak and lost his seat when he stood for them. Aargh… on rereading Liberius’ timeline, it appears he was elected a TD in ’57 as an FF candidate?).
I know I could google and wiki all this, but youse have more time :).
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Somebody with a more detailed knowledge of Browne’s political career would be able to confirm this, but the wiki page for Dublin South-East implies he was elected as an independent in 57′.
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N.Browne election victories:1948, Can P., 1951, Ind., 1957,Ind., !961,NPD., 1969, Lab., 1977, Ind [Lab.]., 1981, SLP.
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Addendum: 1973, Seanad election, Browne elected as Independent, though still a member of the Labour party. (How that counts, I leave to you).
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Zappone probably won’t get in again as an Independent. In the last election she just pipped Ann Marie Dermody of Fine Gael to the last seat. The FG link may come from where Dermody is supposedly resigning her council seat, so won’t be in the mix next time out. So there’s a vacancy on the FG ticket.
The ex Hayes crowd would back Brophy, the Conservative wing joined Renua with Ronan McMahon. So the only Cllrs left would be Brian Lawlor and Paula Donovan neither of which I could see being in with a chance of a seat. Indeed I can’t see one of them being even interested in running for the Dail.
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Not actually the Oireachtas, but Nessa Childers was GP councillor, Lab MEP and Ind MEP. Possibly harsh, but she always struck me as looking for a flag of convenience rather than moving on principle.
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No sign of debt relief for Puerto Rico – just more debt.
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‘Trump channels Charles Trevelyan.
“We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!” Trump wrote in another Tweet.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-attacks-puerto-rico-threatens-pull-emergency-responders-n810036
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