John Francis O'Connell (20 January 1927 – 8 March 2013) was an Irish politician who served as Minister for Health from 1992 to 1993 and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1981 to 1982. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1965 to 1987 and from 1989 to 1993. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency from 1979 to 1981. He was a Senator from 1987 to 1989, after being nominated by the Taoiseach.
Early life
O'Connell was born on 20 January 1927 in the Liberties in Dublin and grew up in Drumcondra in grinding poverty. He was the fifth child of six, including three sons and three daughters, to John O'Connell, a First World War veteran who had lost an eye, and Mary (née Smith), who was in poor health, unable to read, and had one leg distended by illness.
O'Connell attended St Patrick's National School in Drumcondra and the Christian Brothers' secondary school attached to St Vincent's Orphanage, Glasnevin. His mother obtained fee exemptions by ensuring her children performed at the top of their classes. Determined to become a doctor, O'Connell faced initial resistance: his local GP refused to provide a college application reference, claiming that medicine was not a career for the poor. He financed his education through a succession of menial jobs while studying at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He held a seat for the party in the constituency until a revision of constituencies in 1977, when he was elected for Dublin Ballyfermot. At the first direct elections in 1979 to the European Parliament, he was elected with his running mate Michael O'Leary to the Dublin constituency.
In 1963, O'Connell joined the Labour Party in response to chronic unemployment and poverty, and published and edited the party paper Labour News with Proinsias Mac Aonghusa.
O'Connell engaged in labour dispute resolution, mediating between CIÉ and the breakaway National Busmen's Union, and was the only Labour TD to oppose the expulsion of Senator Jack McQuillan over a trade union split. After 1969, he undertook private peace initiatives in Northern Ireland, meeting with representatives from both sides during the Troubles. Although an Irish republican, he expressed respect for the forthrightness of the Ulster Defence Association leadership and Ian Paisley. In 1972, he arranged meetings between British opposition leader Harold Wilson and Provisional IRA representatives (Dáithí Ó Conaill and Seán Mac Stíofáin) in Dublin (March) and Luton (July), actions which attracted criticism from some public figures concerned about encouraging paramilitary activity.
Independent
During the 1981 Irish hunger strike, he visited Bobby Sands, reinforcing his republican credentials. At the 1981 Irish general election, O'Connell topped the poll in Dublin South-Central, while Cluskey was defeated, with O'Connell's transfers dividing evenly among parties, indicating a strong personal electoral base. He resigned from the European Parliament to assume the position. In March 1982, at the beginning of the 23rd Dáil, he was again elected Ceann Comhairle. However, in December 1982, with the meeting of the 24th Dáil, his nomination to the position was unsuccessful, being defeated by Fine Gael TD Tom Fitzpatrick. As outgoing Ceann Comhairle, O'Connell was returned automatically in the two elections of 1982. His tenure included measures on family planning and patient information, as well as controversy over the allocation of discretionary grants and several public gaffes; a Dáil Public Accounts Committee inquiry in 1993 examined grants of lottery money awarded to community groups shortly before the November 1992 general election, and O'Connell accepted responsibility for breaches of standard procedures.
O'Connell gave evidence to the Moriarty Tribunal in 1999 and again in 2006 regarding the Fustuq payments and related matters. The tribunal found in 2006 that a £50,000 payment from Fustuq had been channelled through O'Connell's bank account to Haughey and that the payment was made "in a secretive and clandestine manner" and "did not relate" to a commercial transaction over a horse but was connected to securing Irish passports for Fustuq's relatives; the tribunal concluded that Haughey and O'Connell had acted inappropriately.