RSS
News


Home Page > News > Seamus Kirk replaces John O'Donoghue as Speaker in Irish Parliament

Blogs


comment on article Make a comment
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail

Seamus Kirk replaces John O'Donoghue as Speaker in Irish Parliament

O'Donoghue forced to quit in expenses scandal

By
KENNETH HAYNES,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 1:47 PM
Updated Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 2:13 PM

 

Bookmark and Share

New Speaker: Louth Deputy Seamus Kirk who replaces John O'Donoghue as Speaker of the Irish Parliament
New Speaker: Louth Deputy Seamus Kirk who replaces John O'Donoghue as Speaker of the Irish Parliament
Photo by AFP/Getty Images

Fianna Fail TD Seamus Kirk became the 16th Ceann Comhairle (Speaker of the House) in the history of the Dail (Irish Parliament) Tuesday after John O’Donoghue resigned the position.

Kirk, who represents the Louth constituency, defeated Dinny McGinley of Fine Gael by 87 votes to 51.

The 62-year-old Kirk was first elected to the Dail in 1962 and has been retained his seat in every election since.

From 1987 to 1992, he served as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and since 2002 he has been Chairman of the Fianna Fail Parliamentary party.

Kirk’s appointment came after South Kerry TD John O’Donoghue resigned as a result of the controversy over some of his expense claims as Minister of Arts, Sport and Tourism and Ceann Comhairle.

O’Donoghue made a statement in the Dail during which he said that even though he was stepping down as Ceann Comhairle, he would be standing for election again in his South Kerry constituency.

'In the fullness of time, it will become apparent that many matters have been distorted and exaggerated beyond the bounds of fairness,” said O’Donoghue, before ending his statement on a somewhat defiant note.

“Finally, while I may have been forced out of office by an unfair procedure, only the people of South Kerry have the right to exclude me from political life.

"They have had a good opportunity to judge me, my standards, my motives and my commitment to this country for almost 23 years. I now look forward to representing the interests of the constituents of South Kerry to the best of my ability."

print this article Print
email this articleE-mail


Be the first to make a comment.

It may take several minutes for your comment to appear.


Click to learn more from DiscoverIreland.com.
IrishCentral Mobile QR code


Connect to IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

Welcome to IrishCentral!
Please provide the following information in order to create your account

Username:
E-Mail Address:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy


Welcome to IrishCentral!
All we need is the following information and you will be part of the #1 Irish community in the US

E-Mail Address:
First select a unique username:
Username:
Now choose a password:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
Thank you!

Just one more step and you will be part of the largest Irish community in America! Tell us a little more about you to start enjoying all the features of IrishCentral.

Additional Information:

First Name:
Last Name:
Date of Birth:
Zip:
Gender: Male  Female 
Country:
Degree of Irishness:
Household Income:
Level of Education:

Subscribe to our newsletters:

The Best of IrishCentral - Daily Newsletter
Special Offers from our sponsors

or
Skip

You can edit your information at any time, just go to "my account" when you're logged in.

Log into IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

E-Mail:
Password:
 Remember me Forgot my password