Brian Lenihan

:Brian Lenihan was the name of two Irish politicians, father and son, who held government office in the Republic of Ireland. For the son, who is currently active in Irish politics, see Brian Lenihan, Jr.

Foreign Minister, then loses Dáil seat

Between 1969 and 1973 he served as Minister for Transport and Power. In 1973, following Dr. Patrick Hillery's appointment as Irish EEC Commissioner, Taoiseach Jack Lynch appointed Lenihan as Minister for Foreign Affairs for a short time. However in the 1973 general election, Lenihan's party lost power and he dramatically lost his Roscommon Dáil seat. He contested the immediately following Senate election and was elected, becoming his party's leader in the upper house. Lenihan moved his political base from rural Roscommon to Dublin, where he was elected again as a TD in the 1977 general election landslide victory by Fianna Fáil. Jack Lynch appointed him Minister for Forestry and Fisheries.

Related Topics:
1969 - 1973 - EEC - Jack Lynch - 1973 general election - 1977 general election

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Lynch's forced retirement in 1979 saw a leadership battle between Charles Haughey (the radical republican candidate) and George Colley (the party establishment candidate). Lenihan dismissed the choice as being between a "knave and a fool". He also described himself as being the "x in Oxo"3. He was believed to have backed Colley. Years later he claimed he had actually supported Haughey, but not everyone accepted this assertion.

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Haughey, the winner, kept Lenihan in the cabinet, awarding him again the high profile post of Minister for Foreign Affairs, a post he held until Fianna Fáil lost power in 1981. His period in Foreign Affairs was overshadowed by a comment made after an Anglo-Irish summit between prime ministers Charles Haughey and Margaret Thatcher, when he spoke of Britain and Ireland being able to bring about Irish unity within ten years, a comment which infuriated the British and Northern Ireland unionists and which undid much of the goodwill achieved by the summit. His comments, at a time of major problems within Northern Ireland, with the Provisional IRA and Irish National Liberation Army campaigns in full swing, were widely criticised in the Irish media as insensitive, especially as Irish unity had not even been on the agenda of the summit. One newspaper columnist commented simply "there goes Brian, pointlessly talking himself into trouble again".4 In 1982, when the party regained power for ten months, Lenihan was given the post of Minister for Agriculture.

Related Topics:
1981 - Anglo-Irish - Margaret Thatcher - Irish unity - British - Northern Ireland - Unionists - Provisional IRA - Irish National Liberation Army - 1982

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