Tánaiste Minister for Health
Which position did Seán MacEntee hold in Jun 1961?
Seán MacEntee Seán Francis MacEntee ( ; 23 August 1889 – 9 January 1984 ) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Tánaiste from 1959 to 1969 , Minister for Social Welfare from 1957 to 1961 , Minister for Health from 1957 to 1965 , Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1941 to 1948 , Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1939 to 1941 , Minister for Finance from 1932 to 1939 and 1951 to 1954 . He served as a Teachta Dála ( TD ) from 1918 to 1969 . At the time of his death , he was the last surviving member of the First Dáil . Early life . Born as John McEntee at 47 King Street , Belfast on 23 August 1889 , the son of James McEntee , a publican , and his wife , Mary Owens , both of whom were from Monaghan . In 1901 and 1911 , the familys address was 49 King Street . James McEntee was a prominent Nationalist member of Belfast Corporation and a close friend of Joe Devlin MP . MacEntee was educated at St Marys Christian Brothers School , St . Malachys College , the Belfast Municipal College of Technology and Queens University Belfast where he qualified as an electrical engineer . His early political involvement was with the Irish Socialist Republican Party in Belfast city . He quickly rose through the ranks of the trade union movement becoming junior representative in the citys shipyards . Following his education MacEntee worked as an engineer in Dundalk , County Louth , and was involved in the establishment of a local corps of the Irish Volunteers in the town . He mobilised in Dundalk and fought in the General Post Office Garrison in the Easter Rising in 1916 . He was sentenced to death for his part in the rising . This sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment . MacEntee was released in the general amnesty in 1917 , and was later elected a member of the National Executives of both Sinn Féin and the Irish Volunteers in October 1917 . MacEntee was later elected Sinn Féin Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Monaghan South at the 1918 general election . Rebellion years . An attempt to develop his career as a consulting engineer in Belfast was interrupted by the War of Independence in 1919 . MacEntee served as Vice-Commandant of the Belfast Brigade of the Irish Republican Army . He was also a member of the Volunteer Executive , a sort of Cabinet and Directory for the Minister for Defence and the HQ Staff But MacEntee remained one of the few Sinn Féiners from the north . On 6 August 1920 , MacEntee presented a Memorial lecture to the Dáil from the Belfast Corporation . He told the Dáil it was the only custodian of public order , and that a Nationalist pogrom was taking place , he advised them to fight Belfast . The Dáil governments policy was dubbedHibernia Irredenta or Greening Ireland . But many nationalist towns in Ulster wanted to remain British . Sean MacEntee was asked to resign his South Monaghan seat , after voting against a bunting celebration in Lurgan to mark the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty . Path to civil war . From April 1921 , when MacEntee was transferred to Dublin to direct a special anti-partition campaign in connection with the May general election . It remained Collins policy , he declared , that the largely Protestant shipyard workers of Belfast were being directed by the British , urging all Irishmen to rejoin the Republic . Correspondingly the Ulster Unionist Council rejected the call for a review of the boundary commission decision made on Northern Ireland . But when Ulstermen chose James Craig as Premier , Collins denounced democracy in the north as a sham . It was on the partition of Ireland issue that MacEntee voted against the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 . During the subsequent Civil War MacEntee commanded the IRA unit in Marlboro Street Post Office in Dublin . He later fought with Cathal Brugha in the Hamman Hotel , and was subsequently interned in Kilmainham and Gormanstown until December 1923 . Politician in the Free State . After his release from prison , MacEntee devoted himself more fully to his engineering practice , although he unsuccessfully contested Dublin County by-election of 1924 . He became a founder-member of Fianna Fáil in 1926 and was eventually elected a TD for Dublin County at the 1927 general election . MacEntee founded the Association of Patent Agents in 1929 , having gained his interest in Patents when he worked as an assistant engineer in Dundalk Urban District Council . On MacEntees appointment as Minister for Finance in 1932 , his colleague , Francis Litton who was acting as Secretary of the Association , circulated the members with a notice to the effect that the Association was suspended until such time as MacEntee could return as he now had to devote his energies to the affairs of the State . However , the other members decided to carry on . MacEntee must have valued his status as a Patent Agent since he maintained his name on the Register for over 30 years while he held Ministerial rank in the Irish Government , although he is not thought to have taken any active part in the patent business , which was carried on by his business partners . In the first Fianna Fáil government ( 1932–48 ) . In 1932 , Fianna Fáil came to power for the very first time , with MacEntee becoming Minister for Finance . In keeping with the partys protectionist economic policies his first budget in March of that year saw the introduction of new duties on forty-three imports , many of them coming from Britain . This saw retaliation from the British government , which in turn provoked a response from the Irish government . This was the beginning of the Economic War between the two nations , however , a treaty in 1938 , signed by MacEntee and other senior members who brought an end to the issue . In 1939 , World War II broke out and a cabinet reshuffle resulted in MacEntee being appointed as Minister for Industry and Commerce , taking over from his rival Seán Lemass . During his tenure at this department MacEntee introduced the important Trade Union Act ( 1941 ) . In 1941 , another reshuffle of ministers took place , with MacEntee becoming Minister for Local Government and Public Health . The Health portfolio was transferred to a new Department of Health in 1947 . Following the 1948 general election , Fianna Fáil returned to the opposition benches for the first time in sixteen years . In later Fianna Fáil governments ( 1951–54 , 1957–65 ) . In 1951 , Fianna Fáil were back in government , although in minority status , depending on independent deputies for survival . MacEntee once again returned to the position of Minister for Finance where he felt it was vital to deal with the balance of payments deficit . He brought in a harsh budget in 1951 which raised income tax and tariffs on imports . His chief aim was to cut spending and reduce imports , however , this came at a cost as unemployment increased sharply . The increases were retained in his next two budgets in 1952 and 1953 . It is often said that it was MacEntees performance during this period that cost Fianna Fáil the general election in 1954 . The poor grasp on economics also did his political career tremendous damage as up to that point he was seen as a likely successor as Taoiseach . Now , however , Seán Lemass was firmly seen as the heir apparent . In 1957 , Fianna Fáil returned to power with an overall majority with MacEntee being appointed Minister for Health . The financial and economic portfolios were dominated by Lemass and other like-minded ministers who wanted to move away from protection to free trade . He is credited during this period with the reorganisation of the health services , the establishment of separate departments of health and social welfare , and the fluoridation of water supplies in Ireland . In 1959 , MacEntee became Tánaiste when Seán Lemass was elected Taoiseach . Retirement and death . Following the 1965 general election , MacEntee was 76 years old and retired from the government . This did not mean that he went quietly to the backbenches . He re-emerged in 1966 to launch a verbal attack on Seán Lemass for deciding to step down as party leader and Taoiseach . The two men , however , patched up their differences shortly afterwards . MacEntee retired from Dáil Éireann in 1969 at the age of 80 , making him the oldest TD in Irish history . He had a negative view of the Provisional IRA . MacEntee served in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and repeatedly proposed amendments that would have watered down resolutions against the Greek junta ( see Greek case ) . MacEntee died in Dublin on 9 January 1984 , at the age of 94 . Family . In June 1921 , he had married a strongly nationalistic woman from County Tipperary , Margaret Browne ( 1893–1976 ) , who later taught Irish at Alexandra College and then at UCD . Among Margarets brothers were Cardinal Michael Browne , poet and academic Monsignor Pádraig de Brún , and author Monsignor Maurice Browne . One of Seán and Margarets daughters is the Irish poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi . She was married to the politician Conor Cruise OBrien until his death . Their other daughter was Barbara MacEntee-Biggar ( 1928–1994 ) , who was married to Irish Ambassador Frank Biggar ( 1917–1974 ) ; Barbara and Franks eldest son is former Irish ambassador John Biggar ( 1952– ) . Seán and Margaret also had a son , Seamus MacEntee ( 1924–2000 ) , who lived mostly in England , working as a psychiatrist , as well as being an artist painting under the name Sagesson ( Sages son is an English translation of the name MacEntee , which is an anglicisation of the Irish Mac an tSaoi , meaning Son of the wise man ) . Bibliographical sources . - Beaslai , Piaras , Michael Collins and the Making of a New Ireland 2 vols , ( Dublin 1926 ) - Boyce , George D & Alan O Day ( eds. ) The Ulster Crisis 1885–1921 ( Basingstoke 2006 ) - Coogan , Tim Pat , Michael Collins : A biography ( London 1990 ) - Costello , Francis , Enduring the Most : The Life and Death of Terence MacSwiney ( Dingle 1995 ) - Curran , Joseph , The Birth of the Irish Free State ( Tuscaloosa , Ala , USA 1980 ) - Doherty , Gabriel & Dermot Keogh ( eds ) Michael Collins and the Making of the Irish State ( Cork 1998 ) - Farrell , Brian , Creation of the Dail ( Dublin 1994 ) - Original from the University of Michigan . Digitized 30 Jun 2010 - Foy , Michael T. , Michael Collins Intelligence War : The Struggle between the British and the IRA 1919–1921 ( Stroud 2006 ) - Lynch , Robert , The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition , 1920–1922 ( Dublin 2006 ) - McDermott , Jim , Northern Divisions : The Old IRA and the Belfast Pogroms 1920–22 ( Belfast 2001 ) - Morgan , Austen , Labour and Partition : The Belfast Working Class 1905–23 ( London 1990 ) - Phoenix , Eamon , Northern Nationalism : Nationalist Politics , Partition and the Catholic Minority in Northern Ireland , 1890–1940 ( Belfast 1994 )