O’Malley left a lasting mark on Ireland’s political stage

World of Politics with Harry McGee

Desmond O’Malley was not a typical politician. He was never a glad-handler; not a fan of canvassing or indulging in small talk or being all things to all people.

He smoked like a trooper until he had to give up. He could be abrupt with people, to the point of rudeness.

When his successor Mary Harney was a Minister in the Coalition that banned smoking in pubs and other indoor areas, he told her straight out: “I never thought you would become a member of a Taliban government.”

But he was a remarkable politician. They talk of the best hurlers and footballers who never won All Irelands; O’Malley was certainly among those select few politicians who could have been – and perhaps should have been – Taoiseach.

He entered politics as a young man, succeeding his enigmatic uncle, Donagh O’Malley as a TD for Limerick East at the age of 29. And from the outset, he was a favourite of Taoiseach Jack Lynch and was made government chief whip in 1969.

Inevitably, when the arms trial erupted, he sided with Lynch and against Charles Haughey and Niall Blaney. Even in the weeks before his death, he vehemently contested claims that Lynch must have known of the arms plot long before the date set out by him in his public statements.

As Minister for Justice from 1970 to 1973, he established the Special Criminal Court, giving him a strong reputation as a politician who was adamantly opposed to the Provisional IRA and all it stood for.

Within Fianna Fáil, O’Malley was intimately associated with the Lynch and George Colley wing of the party. He himself was deeply involved in the three unsuccessful heaves and campaigns against Haughey that took place during the tumultuous years between 1979 and 1985.

But Haughey had the whip hand in the party in those days, no matter how flagrant the abuse or how big the scandal.

Read Harry’s full column in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie