Declan Louise

Declan Louise in 2005

Declan Louise, born on the 9th of June 1945 and was the First, First Minister of the Shea Republic becoming First Minister on the 10th of November 1999 until resigning on the 26th of October 2002 after being accused of embezzling funds from the treasury. Louise would go on to serve ministerial roles until 2008 when the Left was voted out and the right was voted in leading to his departure from politics. He would die on the 16th of June 2020 only a week after contracting the coronavirus. His funeral was held on the 10th of August due to issues with attendance and he was buried on the island of Shantahein.

Louise was considered one of the best politicians in Shea as well as the best First Minister by many polls and he led the Republic Party to victory in the 1985 House Assembly Election, 1989, 1993, and 1997 until the Republic of Shantahein united with the other Shea islands to form the Shea Republic.

## Early Life: 1945 - 1970

Louise was born on the 9th of June 1945 to Declan Louise and Annabelle Louise on the island of Shantahein. He grew up with mostly his father who would teach him how to fish, sail, and do manual labor. He would attend St. Crows Primary School at the age of 5 in 1950 and would still until he was 12 in 1957. After attending Primary School he would go to Secondary School until 1963 and remarked his unhappiness with secondary school and depression from little friends. After attending school he would go on to college where he'd get a degree in Psychology after studying for 4 years in the island's only college. Although he grew up as a working class individual -as with most on the island- his course was paid for by the Shanteinian government because of his high grades in school and good attitude. After receiving his degree he would work as a psychologist for three years but became quite unhappy about the job due to the low salary and loss of interest and would quit his job in early 1970.

## Movement Towards Unification: 1970 - 1999

In Summer 1970 the government calls a referendum on the issue of uniting with the other Shea islands. The referendum lead to 32% of people voting in favour of uniting with the Shea islands whereas 68% vote against it. This event leading to Louise's sparked interest in politics and after reading about the issue for a while he would decided the unification of the islands was the most financially stable option.

He would decided to join the Republican party in the early 1970s and would attempt to contest a seat in the 1973 House of Assembly Election but failed to win his seat against a progress politician. He would once again try to win his seat in 1977 and with much harder campaigning he managed to find himself elected as a legislator for the house. He would push for a second referendum in parliament but the progress party rejected the advance claiming that another referendum happening less than 10 years later was "unintelligent." He would get reelected in 1981 and become leader of the Republicans in 1983, pushing for the unification of the islands.

The 1985 House of Assembly Election would be the toughest election yet but also the most important election to date. In the Republic of Beatrice they had elected a unification party the year previously and the Republicans were annoyed that they hadn't been elected yet and so unification garnered a lot of support in the mid 1980s and after the election the party would receive a majority of seats and form its first ever government. They would call a referendum in 1988 that would lead to 58% voting in favour of independence and 42% voting against independence. The government urged other Shea island nations to do the same and call referendums and as well as that the country elected its first Republican President in 1990 with the President leading to a major negotiation partner between all nations. The Democratic Republic of Athudul would elect a unification president as well as legislature in 1991 and the nations all held a summit between their presidents leading to a general agreement that if all countries held referendums once more then they would discus unity between them. This was rejected by the anti-unification President of Theo & Barnova but in 1995 their President would finally be voted out for a pro-unification president leading to another meeting in early 1996 which reinstated the agreement about referendums.

Between mid 1996 and early 1998 all of the nations would hold independence referendums with Shantahein being the first nation to hold a referendum leading to 65% voting in favour of unification. The closet country was Theo & Barnova at only 54% in favour but after negotiations and the first election being held in Autumn 1999, the Republic of Shea/Shea Republic was created and it first government was formed in November.

## First Minister: 1999 - 2002

After the election of 1999, Declan Louise would be appointed First Minister of the Shea Republic on the 10th of November 1999 after a coalition was signed between the Alternative Party, Democratic Labour Party, and the Movement Party. His government would hold 158 out of 312 seats in the legislature which although a slim majority was still a functioning one and Louise was determined to create a successful government. In his term he would reform the law on homosexuality by legalizing homosexual activities in the Homosexuality Act 2000, reform divorces by allowing divorces without a reason, establishing the Shea Pound, and nationalizing the energy industry. Although initially rejecting the Energy Nationalization Act of 2002 because he preferred a semi-owned industry with a mix of government and non-government companies he would eventually accept the law and it would be signed into law by Vedastus Flann in mid 2002.

After the results of the 2002 Chamber of Deputies Election and the scandal about Louise embezzling funds he would resign as First Minister on the 26th of October 2002. He left his role to Patrick Conrad who was relatively younger than him and formed an even more left-wing government, to Louise's distaste.

## Ministerial Roles: 2002 - 2008

After resigning his was offered the position of Secretary of the Treasury by Conrad which he accepted "gratefully" days after his resignation. As Secretary of the Treasury he would increase certain tax rates with Conrad's discretion as well as promoting a low inflation rate with advice on economics and law. His time as Secretary of the Treasury was generally unpopular and seen as ironic that he would be given the position of treasurer after he had embezzled government funds earlier in 2002.

He would continue on as treasurer under Ilian's ministry but after the left parties were voted out of office in 2008 and replaced by a right-wing coalition Louise would no longer be Secretary of the Treasury and would officially resign from politics in December 2008.

## Resignation from Politics & Later Life: 2008 - 2020

After his resignation from politics he would decided to become a teacher for his old school as mental health support teacher. He was generally considered "one of the best" by some of the staff as the school and was praised by staff for his handling of student problems and making them feel welcomed. As he grew older however he started losing his memory and losing his way leading to his diagnoses of dementia in 2016. This led to his departure as a mental health support teacher as the Christmas holidays began in 2016. He would return to his childhood home in 2017 with his wife who would looked after him as his health deteriorated and he became more stressed. In late 2019 his wife recorded in her diary that he had lost any knowledge that he had a wife and was in complete confusion to who was and who she was.

## Death

In May Louise would contract the coronavirus after his wife had caught it and on the 16th of June 2020 Declan Louise would die due to the virus, peacefully in his childhood house in Shantahein. Due to guest complications his funeral would be held nearly two months later on the 10th of August 2020 where he was buried on the island of Shantahein.

His death led to many ex-republican party members speaking about his time as the leader of the party and his influence on politics as First Minister. Patrick Conrad would pay tribute to him in a speech in August 2020 calling Louise a "political hero."