Name Patrick McGilligan | Role Biographer | |
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Nominations Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Books Alfred Hitchcock, Clint: The Life and Legend, Fritz Lang, Oscar Micheaux: The Great, Tender Comrades: A Backsto Similar People Paul Buhle, Ivan Goff, Clint Eastwood | ||
The Official Tony Brown's Journal -- Oscar Micheaux
Patrick Joseph McGilligan (12 April 1889 – 15 November 1979) was an Irish Fine Gael politician and lawyer who served as the 14th Attorney General of Ireland from 1954 to 1957, Minister for Finance from 1948 to 1951, Minister for External Affairs from 1927 to 1932 and Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1924 to 1932. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1923 to 1965.
Contents
- The Official Tony Browns Journal Oscar Micheaux
- Early life
- Lawyer and politician
- Minister for Industry and Commerce
- In opposition
- Minister for Finance
- References
Early life
McGilligan was born in Hanover Place, Coleraine, County Londonderry, the son of Patrick McGilligan, a draper, who would serve as MP for South Fermanagh from 1892 to 1895 for the Irish Parliamentary Party, and Catherine O'Farrell. He was educated at St Columb's College in Derry; Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare and University College Dublin.
Lawyer and politician
He joined Sinn Féin but was unsuccessful in his attempt to be elected as a MP at the 1918 general election. McGilligan was called to the bar in 1921.
Minister for Industry and Commerce
He was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD for the National University of Ireland at a by-election held on 3 November 1923. Between 1924 and 1932 McGilligan served as Minister for Industry and Commerce, notably pushing through the Shannon hydroelectric scheme, then the largest hydroelectricity project in the world. In 1927 he set up the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), and also the Agricultural Credit Corporation.
In opposition
During his period in opposition from 1932 to 1948 he built up a law practice and became professor of constitutional and international law at University College, Dublin, and when the National University of Ireland representation was transferred to the Seanad in 1937, McGilligan was elected as TD for the Dublin North-West constituency.
Minister for Finance
In 1948 McGilligan was appointed Minister for Finance in the first Inter-Party Government. As Minister he undertook some major reforms. He instigated a new approach where Government invested radically in capital projects. Colleagues however complained of his frequent absence from the Cabinet table and the difficulty of contacting him at the Department of Finance Between 1954 and 1957 he served as Attorney General, a job in which, as he himself admitted, he felt far more at home than as Minister for Finance. He retired from Dáil Éireann at the 1965 general election, having served for over 40 years.
Patrick McGilligan died in Dublin on 15 November 1979; despite his well-known fondness for predicting that he would die young, he reached the age of ninety. A later Attorney General, John M. Kelly in the preface to his definitive text, The Irish Constitution (1980), noted the remarkable number of senior judges who were former students of McGilligan and suggested that given his own firm belief in the value of judicial review he deserves much of the credit for the remarkable development of Irish law in this field since the early 1960s.