Death of Tomás Mac Giolla

by Malachy Steenson - Workers Party Thu Feb 04, 2010 14:41

Death of Thomas Mac Giolla
Thursday, 04 February 2010

DEATH OF TOMÁS MAC GIOLLA ANNOUNCED

The death has occurred early this afternoon of Tomás Mac Giolla, former President of the Workers Party, TD for Dublin West (1982-1992) and Lord Mayor of Dublin (1993/94). He was 86 and is survived by his wife May (née McLoughlin) and his sister Evelyn and his nephews and nieces.

Mr. MacGiolla passed away in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin early this afternoon. He had been ill for some time and had been in hospital for the last week.

Tomás Mac Giolla was born in to a farming family at Nenagh, Co. Tipperary on January 25th, 1924. He was a nephew of the Irish Parliamentary Party MP T.P. Gill. He was educated at St. Flannan’s College, Ennis, Co. Clare and in University College Dublin where he completed a degree in Commerce. He subsequently worked as an accountant with the ESB from 1947 until he became a full time public representative for the Workers Party in the late 1970s.

Mr. Mac Giolla joined Sinn Féin around 1950 stood unsuccessfully for his first election for Sinn Féin in North Tipperary in the 1961 general election. He was elected President of Sinn Féin in 1962 which was the same year in which the late Cathal Goulding became Chief of Staff of the IRA. Together they played a pivotal role in transforming the republican movement away from nationalist armed struggle towards socialism and into what would eventually become the Workers’ Party.

He was elected to Dublin City Council in 1979 and was Workers Party TD for Dublin West from 1982 to 1992. In 1993 Tomás Mac Giolla became Lord Mayor of Dublin. He remained active in politics after his retirement and was a member of the Ard Comhairle of the Workers Party until his death.

Paying tribute to Mr. Mac Giolla this afternoon, the current Workers Party President Michael Finnegan, who is Mr. Mac Giolla’s former director of elections in Dublin West, said that Tomás Mac Giolla was a greatly underestimated figure in Irish politics who played a major role in the struggle for civil rights and democracy in Northern Ireland and for people’s rights throughout Ireland and internationally.

AS soon as we have any funeral arrangements we will let everybody know.

ends.

by Jolly Red Giant - Socialist Party / CWI Fri Feb 05, 2010 09:05

to his family - didn't agree with the man, but the one thing that can be said about him is that he didn't go the way of the other prominent individuals who split from the WP.

by Malachy Steenson - Workers Party Fri Feb 05, 2010 16:54

Funeral Arrangements

The remains of Comrade Tomas Mac Giolla, former President of the Workers Party, will be brought to Ballyfermot Civic Centre, Ballyfermot Road, Dublin, tomorrow, Saturday, February 6th, at 2pm. His body will repose there from 2.00pm - 9.00pm on Saturday and from 10.00am - 5.00pm on Sunday.

There will be a Tribute Ceremony at the Civic Centre in Ballyfermot at 12.30pm on Monday, February 8th. Immediately afterwards Tomas's remains will be brought to Palmerstown Cemetery, County Dublin, for burial.

by Dan Byrne Sun Feb 07, 2010 15:18

A very fine tribute to Tomas MacGiolla from his old comrade Senator Eoghan Harris in today's Sunday Independent. The Senator places MacGiolla higher than DeValera in the pantheon of Irish statesmen.

"both de Valera and Mac Giolla could slay sacred cows. They sometimes took too long doing it — de Valera in entering the Dail, Mac Giolla in shifting away from “republican socialist” dogmas — but both men always acted with good authority, and their iron integrity aroused affection as well as respect.

To my mind, when it came to making peace in Northern Ireland, Mac Giolla matters much more than de Valera. In the Seventies, he pioneered the path which the Provisionals would take some 30 years later. This rough and rocky road began back in 1962, when he was elected president of Sinn Fein, just as Cathal Goulding became chief of staff of the IRA, supported by Sean Garland."
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/eoghan-har....html

by Canteen Kevin Thu Feb 11, 2010 00:21

"Comrade" my arse, McGiolla at least stayed true to his Stalinist beliefs, unlike Harris who ditched them as soon as they became unprofitable, like all the careerist left, in 1991. McGiolla should be left in peace without having the likes of Harris spouting his reactionary shite over his grave.

And Harris is infesting the Seanad btw