# Patrick Lindsay (Irish politician)

Patrick James Lindsay (18 January 1914 – 29 June 1993) was an Irish politician and lawyer.

## Early life

He was born in 1914 in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, the eldest of three sons and four daughters of Patrick Lindsay, post office worker, and his wife Mary (née Keegan). Before his second birthday, the family returned to their native County Mayo, settling in the village of Doolough, Kiltane parish, Erris. He received his primary education at Gweesalia national school, and attended secondary school at St. Muiredach's College, Ballina. He subsequently attended University College Galway, where he studied ancient classics, between 1933 and 1937, graduating with an M.A. He was a noted figure in the college – a gifted orator, he served on the committee of the Literary and Debating Society, and took part in the productions of the Drama Society. He was also a member of the Blueshirts movement while in college. He was only just dissuaded by his classics professor at the last moment from embarking with the Irish Brigade under Eoin O'Duffy to fight for Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
   It was while I was at UCG that the movement known as the Blueshirts came into existence. I’ve said it before and I say it again here, I am an unrepentant Blueshirt.
However, while Lindsay declared himself as being "an unrepentant" Blueshirt, in his autobiography he denied that himself or many of the membership saw themselves as actual Fascists. Rather that they viewed themselves as a pseudo-paramilitary wing of Cumann na nGaedheal that was a response to the IRA of the 1930s acting as a pseudo-paramilitary wing of Fianna Fáil, and in fact, that they saw themselves as Democrats upholding free speech.
   As for the charge of Fascism- that's total nonsense. Most of us did not know what it is and had we known we would have been totally opposed to it. We felt, indeed we still feel, that our democratic credentials were impeccable. We had defended the State, democratically established in the past against the all that could be thrown against it during the civil war and we are not going to change now.
Lindsay subsequently became a teacher of classics at the Royal School, Cavan, and later at schools in Dublin. He studied law at University College Dublin and the King's Inns, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1946. He married Moya Brady in 1952, and they had three children.

## Politics

He was elected to Dáil Éireann on his sixth attempt, at the 1954 general election as a Fine Gael Teachta Dála (TD) for Mayo North. He was re-elected at the 1957 general election, but lost his seat at the 1961 general election, after which he was elected to the 10th Seanad by the Industrial and Commercial Panel. He became Leas-Chathaoirleach of the Seanad.
Lindsay returned to the Dáil at the 1965 general election, but lost his seat at the 1969 general election, when he switched constituency to Dublin North-Central. He was again unsuccessful at the 1973 general election.
His ministerial career was brief, lasting only eight months. In July 1956, he was appointed by Taoiseach John A. Costello as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Gaeltacht and to the Minister for Education in the Second Inter-Party Government. In October 1956, he was promoted to the cabinet as Minister for the Gaeltacht, serving until March 1957, when Fianna Fáil returned to power after the 1957 general election. On his return to the Dáil in 1965, he was appointed Fine Gael spokesman on transport and power.

## Law

Lindsay had become a Senior Counsel in 1954, and following the loss of his parliamentary seat in 1969, he devoted himself full-time to his practice at the bar, becoming a leading figure in criminal law. In 1975, he was appointed to the position of Master of the High Court, from which he retired on his seventieth birthday in January 1984.

## Later life

Lindsay served as chair of Cumann Céimithe na Gaillimhe, the University College Galway Graduate Association, during the 1980s. He published his memoirs in 1992. He died on 29 June 1993.