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LeRoc

LeRoc is a form of Modern Jive, a dance style that evolved in the 1980s out of dances including Swing, Lindy Hop and Rock and Roll. The main innovation was to simplify the footwork, making LeRoc very adaptable to different types of music in a 4-beat, fast or slow.

According to the particular teacher, it may incorporate elements of other dance styles including Salsa and Tango.

Both LeRoc and, later, Ceroc evolved in London during the Jive revival in the early 1980s, with dancers often being members of both clubs. LeRoc dances at the Notre Dame Hall, off Leicester Square, and Ceroc dances at the Porchester Hall in Bayswater rarely conflicted so it was easy to attend both, and rivalry between the clubs spurred the development of new dance moves. The split had occurred when James Cronin decided to trademark the word "Ceroc", and run the Ceroc club as a franchised business. The members of the LeRoc club, led by Michel Ange Lau, decided not to run it for potential income, preferring to concentrate on perfecting the dance. This means that, today, many unrelated Modern Jive organisations are free to use "LeRoc" in their names as it remains a generic term.

"The LeRoc Modern Jive Federation" is a non-profit federation of independent dance teachers that was set up in 1991, but it is not mandatory to join. It offers advantages (such as membership of the United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing and Kindred Arts (UKA) to its members.

It is said that the dance style came from France, where Swing / Rock and Roll dancing had not been so suppressed by the onslaught of Disco. LeRoc was named by Michel Ange Lau to describe a "distinctive" style of rock dancing, or "this Rock", while Ceroc, which appears a closer translation from French, is actually derived from "C'est le roc".

Despite the reported French roots of LeRoc, there is currently very little Modern Jive danced in France.

title: LeRoc


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Snowballing

Snowballing often refers to a situation which rapidly gets out of control, as when a snow ball grows larger while rolling downhill.

Snowballing might also refer to:

Economy

 * A situation in which the exercise of stop orders in a declining market or advancing market or specific share creates further downward or upward pressure, triggering more stop orders, magnifying the decline or advance
 * Debt-snowball method: A method of paying down credit card debt by paying the minimum on all balances, except the one with the highest interest rate

Games

 * The throwing of snowballs
 * Snowballing (gaming), when a faction or player keeps gaining territory and becomes unstoppable

Science and engineering

 * In social science research, snowball sampling, or "snowballing": a technique for developing a research sample
 * In researching a field, snowballing is another name for Pearl growing
 * In chemical and industrial engineering, snowballing is the second and last phase, after aggregation, of the pelletization process.

Other uses

 * Bataille de boules de neige, an 1896 French silent film also known as Snowballing
 * Snowballing (sexual practice), the act of spitting semen into a partner's mouth after oral sex

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Snowballing


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Neil Blaney

Neil Terence Columba Blaney (1 October 1922 – 8 November 1995) was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1948 as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) representing Donegal East. A high-profile member of the party, Blaney served as a government minister several times; he was Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (1957), Minister for Local Government (1957–1966) and Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries (1966–1970). In 1970 Blaney's career was radically altered when, alongside Charles Haughey, he was involved in the Arms Crisis and stood accused of clandestinely arranging to provide weapons to the newly-emergent Provisional Irish Republican Army. Although later acquitted of wrongdoing in an Irish court, Blaney involvement in the crisis saw him stripped of his ministries and eventually forced his expulsion from Fianna Fáil. A dogged political campaigner, Blaney managed to retain his seat in Donegal and remained a TD for another two decades, running under the banner of "Independent Fianna Fáil". In addition to being a TD, Blaney also entered into European politics, becoming a member of the European Parliament in 1979. Blaney was a holder of both offices when he died in 1995. Entering the Dáil as its youngest member, he left it as the oldest member.

Early life
Neil Blaney was born in 1922 in the village of Rossnakill in rural Fanad Peninsula in the north of County Donegal, in Ireland. The second eldest of a family of eleven, Blaney's father Neal had been a commander of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Donegal during the War of Independence and the Civil War. His father served as both a TD and as a Senator from 1927 through 1948; at which point Neil Blaney succeed him in that role. It was from his father that Blaney got his strong republican views and his first introduction to politics. He was educated locally at Tamney on the rugged Fanad Peninsula and later attended St Eunan's College in Letterkenny as a boarder. Blaney later worked as an organiser with the Irish National Vintners and Grocers Association.

Early political career
Blaney was first elected to Dáil Éireann for the Donegal East constituency in a by-election in December 1948, following the death of his father from cancer. He also became a member of Donegal County Council. Upon his election Blaney was the youngest member of the Dáil. He remained on the backbenches for a number of years before he was one of a group of young party members handpicked by Seán Lemass to begin a re-organisation drive for the party following the defeat at the 1954 general election. Within the party Blaney gained fame by running the party's by-election campaigns throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He introduced the concept of cavalcades after his election victories in his constituency together with roadside bonfires. At the time this was an alien political concept in Ireland. Blaney also adopted wearing sunglasses, chewing gum and wearing bright ties and colourful suits. His dedicated bands of supporters earned the sobriquet 'the Donegal Mafia', and succeeded in getting Des O'Malley and Gerry Collins elected to the Dáil.

Ministerial career
Following Fianna Fáil's victory at the 1957 general election Éamon de Valera, as Taoiseach, brought new blood into the Cabinet in the shape of Blaney, Jack Lynch, Kevin Boland and Mícheál Ó Móráin. Blaney was appointed Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, becoming the first government minister from Donegal, however, he moved to the position of Minister for Local Government at the end of 1957 following the death of Seán Moylan. Blaney proved to be an innovative minister and his first task as minister was to prepare the groundwork for the referendum to scrap the proportional representation electoral system and replace it with the first-past-the-post voting system. The referendum failed to be passed, however, Blaney was retained in the post when Lemass succeeded de Valera as Taoiseach in 1959. In 1963 he introduced the Planning Act to rationalise planning throughout the local authorities in the state. This act also created the agency, An Forás Forbatha, to bring planning experts together. His department underwent a very large programme to provide piped water to rural homes. In 1965 Blaney introduced the Road Traffic Act which required that motorists take a driving test in roadworthy cars. During his tenure it became possible to pay rates (property taxes) by instalment and he also introduced legislation which entitled non-nationals to vote in local elections.

In 1966 Lemass resigned as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader. The subsequent leadership election saw George Colley and Charles Haughey emerge as the two front-runners. Blaney was unimpressed with the choice and, with the support of the like-minded Kevin Boland, he threw his hat in the ring, declaring himself to be the "Radical Republican" candidate. However outside the Northwest and apart from Boland, Blaney failed to attract much support. After some pressure from Lemass the Cork politician, Jack Lynch, entered the race and was deemed to be an unbeatable candidate. Haughey and Boland withdrew in support of Lynch, however, Colley forced a contest. He was defeated heavily with Lynch becoming party leader and Taoiseach. In the subsequent cabinet reshuffle Blaney was appointed Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries.

Arms Crisis
In 1969, when conflict broke out in Northern Ireland, Blaney was one of the first to express strong Irish republican views in support of Northern nationalists, views which contradicted the policy of the Irish Government. Blaney was a native of Ulster, and was affected by the outbreak of violence in parts of his home province. He was concerned about the plight of the Nationalist majority in West Tyrone and in Derry, areas that bordered his constituency in West Ulster. From around late 1968 onwards, Blaney formed and presided over an unofficial Nationalist group in Leinster House popularly known as 'the Letterkenny Table', so named because this group of politicians used to meet at a certain table in either the Dáil bar or the Dáil restaurant. The group was dominated by Blaney up until his death. He had also been one of a four-member Cabinet sub-committee set up to decide on government policy to Northern Ireland together with Charles Haughey, Pádraig Faulkner, and Joseph Brennan. A fund of £100,000 was set up to give to the nationalist people in the form of aid. However, those involved have denied that the government supported the importation of arms.

There was general surprise when, in an incident known as the Arms Crisis, Blaney, along with Haughey, was sacked from Taoiseach Jack Lynch's cabinet amid allegations of the use of the funds to import arms for use by the new emergent Provisional IRA. Opposition leader Liam Cosgrave was informed by the Garda that a plot to import arms existed and included government members. Cosgrave told Lynch he knew of the plot and would announce it in the Dáil next day if he did not act. Lynch asked for Haughey and Blaney's resignations. Both men refused, saying they did nothing illegal. Lynch then advised President de Valera to sack Haughey and Blaney from the government. Kevin Boland resigned in sympathy, while Mícheál Ó Móráin was dismissed one day earlier in a preemptive strike to ensure that he was not the Minister for Justice when the crisis broke. Lynch chose government chief whip Des O'Malley for the role. Haughey and Blaney were subsequently tried in court along with an army Officer, Captain James Kelly, and Albert Luykx, a Belgian businessman who allegedly used his contacts to buy the arms. At trial, all the accused were acquitted, but many of their critics refused to recognise the verdict of the courts. Although Blaney was cleared of wrongdoing, his ministerial career was brought to an end.

Lynch subsequently moved against Blaney so as to isolate him in the party. He was defeated by George Colley in a vote for the position of Joint Honorary Treasurer at the 1971 Ardfheis, while his constituency colleague, Liam Cunningham, had been appointed a Parliamentary Secretary in the cabinet reshuffle. In the Dáil, Blaney abstained on a motion of no confidence on the worthiness of cabinet minister Jim Gibbons for office, sponsored by the opposition. Paudge Brennan and Des Foley acted similarly and, while the government survived, they were all expelled from the parliamentary party. When Blaney and his supporters tried to organise the party's national collection independently, Lynch acted, and in 1972 Blaney was expelled from the Fianna Fáil party for 'conduct unbecoming'.

Independent Fianna Fáil
Following his expulsion from Fianna Fáil, Kevin Boland tried to persuade Blaney to join the Aontacht Éireann party he was creating but Blaney declined. Instead, he contested all subsequent elections for Independent Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party, an organisation that he built up, chiefly in the County Donegal constituencies from disaffected members of the Fianna Fáil party who remained loyal to him along with a large number of Republicans. Throughout the 1970s there were frequent calls for his re-admittance to Fianna Fáil but the most vocal opponents of this move were Fianna Fáil delegates from County Donegal.

At the 1979 European elections Blaney topped the poll in the Connacht–Ulster constituency to the annoyance of Fianna Fáil. He sat in the Technical Group of Independents and served as chair of the group along with the Italian Radical Marco Pannella and Danish left-wing Eurosceptic Jens-Peter Bonde. He narrowly lost the seat at the 1984 election but was returned to serve as an MEP in 1989 election where he sat with the regionalist Rainbow Group. He also canvassed for IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election, in which Sands was elected to Westminster.

Blaney contracted cancer from which he died at the age of 73 on 8 November 1995. He held his Dáil seat until his death and was the reigning Father of the Dáil at that time. His death occurred at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin.

In the resulting by-election on 2 April 1996, the Fianna Fáil candidate reclaimed the seat. However, Blaney's brother, Harry Blaney, was elected as an Independent Fianna Fáil TD at the 1997 general election. He was replaced by his son, Niall Blaney, who was elected at the 2002 general election. But in July 2006 Niall rejoined Fianna Fáil. This was opposed by other members of the Blaney family, including all seven children of Neil Blaney and his widow Eva, who issued a press release prior to Niall Blaney's decision castigating the Fianna Fáil party and disassociating themselves from any so called 'truce' with them.

Legacy
Irish historian Patrick Maume summarised Blaney's career by noting "“the ruthless authoritarianism which marked his career [and] his effectiveness as administrator and party fixer. The volatile mixture of calculation, resentment, sophistication, provincialism, ruthlessness, and nostalgia which he displayed is reminiscent of other political figures of his intermediate generation; he might well have been taoiseach but instead became a catalyst for the formation of the Provisional IRA”."

A road in Letterkenny is named the Neil T. Blaney Road in his honour.

title: Neil Blaney


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Umberto Boccioni

Umberto Boccioni (,  ; 19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach to the dynamism of form and the deconstruction of solid mass guided artists long after his death. His works are held by many public art museums, and in 1988 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City organized a major retrospective of 100 pieces.

Biography
Umberto Boccioni was born on 19 October 1882 in Reggio Calabria. His father was a minor government employee, originally from the Romagna region in the north, and his job included frequent reassignments throughout Italy. The family soon relocated further north, and Umberto and his older sister Amelia grew up in Forlì (Emilia-Romagna), Genoa and finally Padua. At the age of 15, in 1897, Umberto and his father moved to Catania, Sicily, where he would finish school. Some time after 1898, he moved to Rome and studied art at the Scuola Libera del Nudo of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma. He also studied under the Liberty style poster artist Giovanni Mataloni.

The little known about his years in Rome is found in the autobiography of his friend Gino Severini (1883–1966), who recalled their meeting in 1901 and mutual interest in Nietzsche, rebellion, life experiences and socialism. Boccioni's writings at this time already express the combination of outrage and irony that would become a lifelong characteristic. His critical and rebellious nature, and overall intellectual ability, would contribute substantially to the development of the Futurism movement. After building a foundation of skills, having studied the classics through Impressionism, both he and Severini became students of Giacomo Balla (1871–1958), a painter focusing on the modern Divisionist technique, painting with divided rather than mixed color and breaking the painted surface into a field of stippled dots and stripes. Severini wrote "It was a great stroke of luck for us to meet such a man, whose direction was decisive of all our careers." In 1906, he briefly moved to Paris, where he studied Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles, before visiting Russia for three months, getting a first-hand view of the civil unrest and governmental crackdowns. Returning to Italy in 1907, he briefly took drawing classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Venice. He had first visited the Famiglia Artistica, a society for artists in Milan, in 1901.

As he travelled from one city to the other, in parallel with his most ground-breaking artistic endeavours, he worked as a commercial illustrator. Between 1904 and 1909 he provided lithographs and gouache paintings to internationally renowned publishing houses, such as Berlin-based Stiefbold & Co. Boccioni's production in this field shows his awareness of contemporary European illustration, such as the work of Cecil Aldin, Harry Eliott, Henri Cassiers and Albert Beerts, and attests to his information of contemporary trends in the visual arts more in general.

Boccioni moved to Milan in 1907. There, early in 1908, he met the Divisionist painter Gaetano Previati. In early 1910 he met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who had already published his Manifesto del Futurismo ("Manifesto of Futurism") in the previous year. On 11 February 1910 Boccioni, with Balla, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo and Severini, signed the Manifesto dei pittori futuristi ("Manifesto of Futurist painters"), and on 8 March he read the manifesto at the Politeama Chiarella theatre in Turin.

Boccioni became the main theorist of the artistic movement. "Only when Boccioni, Balla, Severini and a few other Futurists traveled to Paris toward the end of 1911 and saw what Braque and Picasso had been doing did the movement begin to take real shape." He also decided to be a sculptor after he visited various studios in Paris, in 1912, including those of Georges Braque, Alexander Archipenko, Constantin Brâncuși, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, August Agero and, probably, Medardo Rosso. In 1912 he exhibited some paintings together with other Italian futurists at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, and the following year returned to show his sculptures at the Galerie La Boétie: all related to the elaboration of what Boccioni had seen in Paris, where he had visited the studios of Cubist sculptors, including those of Constantin Brâncuși, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Alexander Archipenko to further his knowledge of avant-garde sculpture.

In 1914 he published Pittura e scultura futuriste (dinamismo plastico) explaining the aesthetics of the group: "While the impressionists paint a picture to give one particular moment and subordinate the life of the picture to its resemblance to this moment, we synthesize every moment (time, place, form, color-tone) and thus paint the picture."

He exhibited in London, together with the group, in 1912 (Sackville Gallery) and 1914 (Doré Gallery): the two exhibitions made a deep impression on a number of young English artists, in particular C.R.W. Nevinson, who joined the movement. Others aligned themselves instead to its British equivalent, Vorticism, led by Wyndham Lewis. "Boccioni's gift was to bring a fresh eye to reality in ways that, we now recognise, defined the nature of the modern movement in the visual arts and literature, too." --Michael Glover (art critic, The Independent)

Military service and death
Italian involvement in the First World War began late in May 1915 with Italy's declaration of war on Austro-Hungary. The "Lombard Battalion Volunteers Cyclists and Motorists", which Boccioni was part of, set off in early June from Milan to Gallarate, then on to Peschiera del Garda, in the rear of the Trentino front. In July 1915, the volunteers were intended for a sector of the front around Ala and the Gardesana. On 24 October 1915, Boccioni participated in the battle of Dosso Casina. On 1 December 1915, the battalion was dissolved as part of a general reorganization; the volunteers were laid off temporarily, then each was called up along with the class. In May 1916 Boccioni was drafted into the Italian Army, and was assigned to an artillery regiment at Sorte of Chievo, near Verona. On 16 August 1916, he was thrown from his horse during a cavalry training exercise and was trampled. He died the following day, age thirty-three, at Verona Military Hospital, and he was buried in the Monumental Cemetery of that city.

Early portraits and landscapes
From 1902 to 1910, Boccioni focused initially on drawings, then sketched and painted portraits – with his mother as a frequent model. He also painted landscapes – often including the arrival of industrialization, trains and factories for example. During this period, he weaves between Pointillism and Impressionism, and the influence of Giacomo Balla, and Divisionism techniques are evident in early paintings (although later largely abandoned). The Morning (1909) was noted for "the bold and youthful violence of hues" and as "a daring exercise in luminosity." His 1909–10 Three Women, which portrays his mother and sister, and longtime lover Ines at center, was cited as expressing great emotion – strength, melancholy and love.

Development of Futurism
Boccioni worked for nearly a year on La città sale or The City Rises, 1910, a huge (2m by 3m) painting, which is considered his turning point into Futurism. "I attempted a great synthesis of labor, light and movement" he wrote to a friend. Upon its exhibition in Milan in May 1911, the painting attracted numerous reviews, mostly admiring. By 1912 it had become a headline painting for the exhibition traveling Europe, the introduction to Futurism. It was sold to the great pianist, Ferruccio Busoni for 4,000 lire that year, and today is frequently on prominent display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at the entrance to the paintings department.

La risata (1911, The Laugh) is considered Boccioni's first truly Futurist work. He had fully parted with Divisionism, and now focused on the sensations derived from his observation of modern life. Its public reception was quite negative, compared unfavorably with Three Women, and it was defaced by a visitor, running his fingers through the still fresh paint. Subsequent criticism became more positive, with some considering the painting a response to Cubism. It was purchased by Albert Borchardt, a German collector who acquired 20 Futurist works exhibited in Berlin, including The Street Enters the House (1911) which depicts a woman on a balcony overlooking a busy street. Today the former also is owned by the Museum of Modern Art, and the latter by the Sprengel Museum in Hanover.

Boccioni spent much of 1911 working on a trilogy of paintings titled "Stati d'animo" ("States of Mind"), which he said expressed departure and arrival at a railroad station – The Farewells, Those Who Go, and Those Who Stay. All three paintings were originally purchased by Marinetti, until Nelson Rockefeller acquired them from his widow and later donated them to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Beginning in 1912, with Elasticità or Elasticity, depicting the pure energy of a horse, captured with intense chromaticism, he completed a series of Dynamist paintings: Dinamismo di un corpo umano (Human Body), ciclista (Cyclist), Foot-baller, and by 1914 Dinamismo plastico: cavallo + caseggiato (Plastic Dynamism: Horse + Houses).

While continuing this focus, he revived his previous interest in portraiture. Beginning with L'antigrazioso (The antigraceful) in 1912 and continuing with I selciatori (The Street Pavers) and Il bevitore (The Drinker) both in 1914.

In 1914 Boccioni published his book, Pittura, scultura futuriste (Futurist Painting and Sculpture), which caused a rift between himself and some of his Futurist comrades. As a result, perhaps, he abandoned his exploration of Dynamism, and instead sought further decomposition of a subject by means of colour. With Horizontal Volumes in 1915 and the Portrait of Ferruccio Busoni in 1916, he completed a full return to figurative painting. Perhaps fittingly, this last painting was a portrait of the maestro who purchased his first Futurist work, The City Rises.

Between 1906 and 1915 his mother Cecilia Forlani appeared as a key figure in at least forty-five of his works, in various media.

Sculpture
The writing of his Manifesto tecnico della scultura futurista (Technical manifesto of Futurist sculpture), published on 11 April 1912, was Boccioni's intellectual and physical launch into sculpture; he had begun working in sculpture in the previous year.

By the end of 1913 he had completed what is considered his masterpiece, Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio (Unique Forms of Continuity in Space), in wax. His goal for the work was to depict a "synthetic continuity" of motion, instead of an "analytical discontinuity" that he saw in such artists as František Kupka and Marcel Duchamp. During his life, the work only existed as a plaster cast. It was first cast in bronze in 1931. This sculpture has been the subject of extensive commentary, and in 1998 it was selected as the image to be engraved on the back of the Italian 20-cent euro coin.

Soon after Boccioni's death in 1916 (and after a memorial exhibition was held in Milan ), his family entrusted them for an impermanent time to a fellow sculptor, Piero da Verona; da Verona then requested that his assistant place them in the local rubbish-dump. Marinetti's outraged account of the destruction of the sculptures was slightly different; in his memoirs, he stated that the sculptures were destroyed by workmen to clear the room the "envious passèist narrow-minded sculptor" had placed them. Thus, much of his experimental work from late 1912 to 1913 was destroyed, including pieces relating to contemporaneous paintings, which are known only through photographs. One of the few surviving pieces is the Antigrazioso (Anti-Graceful, also called The Mother).

In 2019, the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art held an exhibition reconstructing several of the destroyed sculptures.

Publications

 * Article – Manifesto dei pittori futuristi, 1910 (Manifesto of Futurist Painters)
 * Article – Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture, April 1912
 * Article – The Plastic Foundation of Futurist Sculpture and Painting, in Lacerba, March 1913 issue
 * Article – Esposizione di scultura futurista del pittore e scultore futurista, 1913
 * Article – Manifesto tecnico della scultura futurista, 1914
 * Book – Pittura, scultura futuriste (Futurist painting and sculpture), 1914

Exhibitions

 * Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 2019 – Umberto Boccioni: Recreating the Lost Sculptures
 * Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 2009 – Centenary of Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto, with 20 works
 * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2004 – Exhibition centered on Materia, with 23 other works.
 * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988 – Major Retrospective
 * Retrospective catalogue: Umberto Boccioni, by Ester Coen, 272pp, 1988

 * Castelvecchio Museum Verona, 1985–1986 & Pinacoteca di Brera Milan, 1986 & San Stae Venice, 1986 – Boccioni a Venezia
 * Palazzo Reale di Milano, 1982–1983 & Kunstmuseum, Hanover, 1983 – Boccioni a Milano
 * Palazzo Reale di Milano, 1973–1974 – Boccioni e il suo tempo

title: Umberto Boccioni


text:
Kennedy–Thorndike experiment

The Kennedy–Thorndike experiment, first conducted in 1932 by Roy J. Kennedy and Edward M. Thorndike, is a modified form of the Michelson–Morley experimental procedure, testing special relativity. The modification is to make one arm of the classical Michelson–Morley (MM) apparatus shorter than the other one. While the Michelson–Morley experiment showed that the speed of light is independent of the orientation of the apparatus, the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment showed that it is also independent of the velocity of the apparatus in different inertial frames. It also served as a test to indirectly verify time dilation – while the negative result of the Michelson–Morley experiment can be explained by length contraction alone, the negative result of the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment requires time dilation in addition to length contraction to explain why no phase shifts will be detected while the Earth moves around the Sun. The first direct confirmation of time dilation was achieved by the Ives–Stilwell experiment. Combining the results of those three experiments, the complete Lorentz transformation can be derived.

Improved variants of the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment have been conducted using optical cavities or Lunar Laser Ranging. For a general overview of tests of Lorentz invariance, see Tests of special relativity.

The experiment
The original Michelson–Morley experiment was useful for testing the Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction hypothesis only. Kennedy had already made several increasingly sophisticated versions of the MM experiment through the 1920s when he struck upon a way to test time dilation as well. In their own words:

"The principle on which this experiment is based is the simple proposition that if a beam of homogeneous light is split […] into two beams which after traversing paths of different lengths are brought together again, then the relative phases […] will depend […] on the velocity of the apparatus unless the frequency of the light depends […] on the velocity in the way required by relativity."

Referring to Fig. 1, key optical components were mounted within vacuum chamber V on a fused quartz base of extremely low coefficient of thermal expansion. A water jacket W kept the temperature regulated to within 0.001 °C. Monochromatic green light from a mercury source Hg passed through a Nicol polarizing prism N before entering the vacuum chamber, and was split by a beam splitter B set at Brewster's angle to prevent unwanted rear surface reflections. The two beams were directed towards two mirrors M1 and M2 which were set at distances as divergent as possible given the coherence length of the 5461 Å mercury line (≈32 cm, allowing a difference in arm length ΔL ≈ 16 cm). The reflected beams recombined to form circular interference fringes which were photographed at P. A slit S allowed multiple exposures across the diameter of the rings to be recorded on a single photographic plate at different times of day.

By making one arm of the experiment much shorter than the other, a change in velocity of the Earth would cause changes in the travel times of the light rays, from which a fringe shift would result unless the frequency of the light source changed to the same degree. In order to determine if such a fringe shift took place, the interferometer was made extremely stable and the interference patterns were photographed for later comparison. The tests were done over a period of many months. As no significant fringe shift was found (corresponding to a velocity of 10±10 km/s within the margin of error), the experimenters concluded that time dilation occurs as predicted by Special relativity.

Basic theory of the experiment
Although Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction (Lorentz contraction) by itself is fully able to explain the null results of the Michelson–Morley experiment, it is unable by itself to explain the null results of the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment. Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction is given by the formula:

 * $$L = L_{0}\sqrt{1-v^{2}/c^{2}} = L_{0}/{\gamma(v)}$$

where
 * $$L_0$$ is the proper length (the length of the object in its rest frame),
 * $$L$$ is the length observed by an observer in relative motion with respect to the object,
 * $$ v \,$$ is the relative velocity between the observer and the moving object, i.e. between the hypothetical aether and the moving object
 * $$ c \,$$ is the speed of light,

and the Lorentz factor is defined as

 * $$\gamma (v) \equiv \frac{1}{\sqrt{1-v^2/c^2}} \ $$.

Fig. 2 illustrates a Kennedy–Thorndike apparatus with perpendicular arms and assumes the validity of Lorentz contraction. If the apparatus is motionless with respect to the hypothetical aether, the difference in time that it takes light to traverse the longitudinal and transverse arms is given by:

 * {| class="wikitable" style="border: 1px solid darkgray;"

! $$T_{L} - T_{T} = \frac{2 (L_{L} - L_{T}) }{c} $$
 * }
 * }

The time it takes light to traverse back-and-forth along the Lorentz–contracted length of the longitudinal arm is given by:

 * $$T_{L}=T_{1}+T_{2} = \frac{L_{L} / \gamma (v)}{c-v}+\frac{L_{L} / \gamma (v)}{c+v} = \frac{2L_{L} / \gamma (v)}{c}\frac{1}{1-\frac{v^{2}}{c^{2}}} = \frac{2L_{L} \gamma (v)}{c}$$

where T1 is the travel time in direction of motion, T2 in the opposite direction, v is the velocity component with respect to the luminiferous aether, c is the speed of light, and LL the length of the longitudinal interferometer arm. The time it takes light to go across and back the transverse arm is given by:

 * $$T_{T}=\frac{2L_{T}}{\sqrt{c^{2}-v^{2}}}=\frac{2L_{T}}{c}\frac{1}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^{2}}{c^{2}}}} = \frac{2L_{T} \gamma (v)}{c}$$

The difference in time that it takes light to traverse the longitudinal and transverse arms is given by:

 * {| class="wikitable" style="border: 1px solid darkgray;"

! $$T_{L} - T_{T} = \frac{2 (L_{L} - L_{T}) \gamma (v)}{c} $$
 * }
 * }

Because ΔL=c(TL-TT), the following travel length differences are given (ΔLA being the initial travel length difference and vA the initial velocity of the apparatus, and ΔLB and vB after rotation or velocity change due to Earth's own rotation or its rotation around the Sun):

 * $$\Delta L_{A}=\frac{2\left(L_{L}-L_{T}\right)}{\sqrt{1-v_{A}^{2}/c^{2}}},\qquad\Delta L_{B}=\frac{2\left(L_{L}-L_{T}\right)}{\sqrt{1-v_{B}^{2}/c^{2}}}$$.

In order to obtain a negative result, we should have ΔLA−ΔLB=0. However, it can be seen that both formulas only cancel each other as long as the velocities are the same (vA=vB). But if the velocities are different, then ΔLA and ΔLB are no longer equal. (The Michelson–Morley experiment isn't affected by velocity changes since the difference between LL and LT is zero. Therefore, the MM experiment only tests whether the speed of light depends on the orientation of the apparatus.) But in the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment, the lengths LL and LT are different from the outset, so it is also capable of measuring the dependence of the speed of light on the velocity of the apparatus.

According to the previous formula, the travel length difference ΔLA−ΔLB and consequently the expected fringe shift ΔN are given by (λ being the wavelength):

 * $$\Delta N=\frac{\Delta L_{A}-\Delta L_{B}}{\lambda}=\frac{2\left(L_{L}-L_{T}\right)}{\lambda}\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{1-v_{A}^{2}/c^{2}}}-\frac{1}{\sqrt{1-v_{B}^{2}/c^{2}}}\right)$$.

Neglecting magnitudes higher than second order in v/c:

 * $$\approx\frac{L_{L}-L_{T}}{\lambda}\left(\frac{v_{A}^{2}-v_{B}^{2}}{c^{2}}\right)$$

For constant ΔN, i.e. for the fringe shift to be independent of velocity or orientation of the apparatus, it is necessary that the frequency and thus the wavelength λ be modified by the Lorentz factor. This is actually the case when the effect of time dilation on the frequency is considered. Therefore, both length contraction and time dilation are required to explain the negative result of the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment.

Importance for relativity
In 1905, it had been shown by Henri Poincaré and Albert Einstein that the Lorentz transformation must form a group to satisfy the principle of relativity (see History of Lorentz transformations). This requires that length contraction and time dilation have the exact relativistic values. Kennedy and Thorndike now argued that they could derive the complete Lorentz transformation solely from the experimental data of the Michelson–Morley experiment and the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment. But this is not strictly correct, since length contraction and time dilation having their exact relativistic values are sufficient but not necessary for the explanation of both experiments. This is because length contraction solely in the direction of motion is only one possibility to explain the Michelson–Morley experiment. In general, its null result requires that the ratio between transverse and longitudinal lengths corresponds to the Lorentz factor – which includes infinitely many combinations of length changes in the transverse and longitudinal direction. This also affects the role of time dilation in the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment, because its value depends on the value of length contraction used in the analysis of the experiment. Therefore, it's necessary to consider a third experiment, the Ives–Stilwell experiment, in order to derive the Lorentz transformation from experimental data alone.

More precisely: In the framework of the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl test theory, the following scheme can be used to describe the experiments: α represents time changes, β length changes in the direction of motion, and δ length changes perpendicular to the direction of motion. The Michelson–Morley experiment tests the relationship between β and δ, while the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment tests the relationship between α and β. So α depends on β which itself depends on δ, and only combinations of those quantities but not their individual values can be measured in these two experiments. Another experiment is necessary to directly measure the value of one of these quantities. This was actually achieved with the Ives-Stilwell experiment, which measured α as having the value predicted by relativistic time dilation. Combining this value for α with the Kennedy–Thorndike null result shows that β necessarily must assume the value of relativistic length contraction. And combining this value for β with the Michelson–Morley null result shows that δ must be zero. So the necessary components of the Lorentz transformation are provided by experiment, in agreement with the theoretical requirements of group theory.

Cavity tests
In recent years, Michelson–Morley experiments as well as Kennedy–Thorndike type experiments have been repeated with increased precision using lasers, masers, and cryogenic optical resonators. The bounds on velocity dependence according to the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl test theory (RMS), which indicates the relation between time dilation and length contraction, have been significantly improved. For instance, the original Kennedy–Thorndike experiment set bounds on RMS velocity dependence of ~10−2, but current limits are in the ~10−8 range.

Fig. 3 presents a simplified schematic diagram of Braxmaier et al.'s 2002 repeat of the Kennedy–Thorndike experiment. On the left, photodetectors (PD) monitor the resonance of a sapphire cryogenic optical resonator (CORE) length standard kept at liquid helium temperature to stabilize the frequency of a Nd:YAG laser to 1064 nm. On the right, the 532 nm absorbance line of a low pressure iodine reference is used as a time standard to stabilize the (doubled) frequency of a second Nd:YAG laser.

Lunar laser ranging
In addition to terrestrial measurements, Kennedy–Thorndike experiments were carried out by Müller & Soffel (1995) and Müller et al. (1999) using Lunar Laser Ranging data, in which the Earth-Moon distance is evaluated to an accuracy of centimeters. If there is a preferred frame of reference and the speed of light depends on the observer's velocity, then anomalous oscillations should be observable in the Earth-Moon distance measurements. Since time dilation is already confirmed to high precision, the observance of such oscillations would demonstrate dependence of the speed of light on the observer’s velocity, as well as direction dependence of length contraction. However, no such oscillations were observed in either study, with a RMS velocity bound of ~10−5, comparable to the bounds set by Hils and Hall (1990). Hence both length contraction and time dilation must have the values predicted by relativity.

title: Kennedy–Thorndike experiment


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Labour Party (Ireland)

The Labour Party (Páirtí an Lucht Oibre, literally "Party of the Working People") is a centre-left  and social-democratic  political party in the Republic of Ireland. Founded on 28 May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin, and William O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress, it describes itself as a "democratic socialist party" in its constitution.

Labour continues to be the political arm of the Irish trade union and labour movement and seeks to represent workers' interests in the Dáil and on a local level. Unlike many other Irish political parties, Labour did not arise as a faction of the original Sinn Féin party, although it merged with the Democratic Left in 1999, a party that traced its origins back to Sinn Féin. The party has served as a partner in coalition governments on eight occasions since its formation: seven times in coalition either with Fine Gael alone or with Fine Gael and other smaller parties, and once with Fianna Fáil. This gives Labour a cumulative total of twenty-five years served as part of a government, the third-longest total of any party in the Republic of Ireland after Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Led by Ivana Bacik, it is the fifth-largest party in Dáil Éireann, with seven seats, and is the joint third-largest party in Seanad Éireann, with four seats, making Labour the fifth-largest party in the Oireachtas overall as of 2021. The Labour Party is a member of the Progressive Alliance, Socialist International, and Party of European Socialists.

Foundation
James Connolly, James Larkin and William O'Brien established the Irish Labour Party on 28 May 1912, as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress, in Clonmel Town Hall. This party was to represent the workers in the expected Dublin Parliament under the Third Home Rule Act 1914. However, after the defeat of the trade unions in the Dublin Lockout of 1913 the labour movement was weakened; the emigration of James Larkin in 1914 and the execution of James Connolly following the Easter Rising in 1916 further damaged it.

The Irish Citizen Army (ICA), formed during the 1913 Lockout, was informally the military wing of the Labour Movement. The ICA took part in the 1916 Rising. Councillor Richard O'Carroll, a Labour Party member of Dublin Corporation, was the only serving elected representative to be killed during the Easter Rising. O'Carroll was shot by John Bowen-Colthurst and died several days later, on 5 May 1916. The ICA was revived during Peadar O'Donnell's Republican Congress but after the 1935 split in the Congress most ICA members joined the Labour Party.

Early history
In Larkin's absence, William O'Brien became the dominant figure in the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) and wielded considerable influence in the Labour Party. O'Brien also dominated the Irish Trades Union Congress. The Labour Party, led by Thomas Johnson from 1917, declined to contest the 1918 general election in order to allow the election to take the form of a plebiscite on Ireland's constitutional status (although some candidates did run in Belfast constituencies under the Labour banner against Unionist candidates). It also refrained from contesting the 1921 elections. As a result, the party was left outside Dáil Éireann during the vital years of the independence struggle, though Johnson sat in the First Dáil.

In the Irish Free State
The Anglo-Irish Treaty divided the Labour Party. Some members sided with the Irregulars in the Irish Civil War that quickly followed, however O'Brien and Johnson encouraged its members to support the Treaty. In the 1922 general election the party won 17 seats, having fielded 18 candidates. Winning 21.4% of the first preference vote, this remains the party's highest ever share of the vote as of 2022. However, there were a number of strikes during the first year and a loss in support for the party. In the 1923 general election the Labour Party only won 14 seats. From 1922 until Fianna Fáil TDs took their seats in 1927, the Labour Party was the major opposition party in the Dáil. Labour attacked the lack of social reform by the Cumann na nGaedheal government. From 1927, a large number of the Labour Party's voters were pre-empted by Fianna Fáil, with its almost identical policies. Labour lacked Fianna Fáil's 'republican' image, which was a contributing factor to this loss.

Larkin returned to Ireland in April 1923. He hoped to resume the leadership role in the ITGWU which he had previously left, but O'Brien resisted him. Larkin also created a pro-communist party called the Irish Worker League. O'Brien regarded Larkin as a "loose cannon." Following a failed challenge to O'Brien's leadership and association with communist militancy, Larkin was expelled from the ITGWU and created the WUI, a communist alternative to the ITGWU, in 1924. Two-thirds of the Dublin membership of the ITGWU defected to the new union. O'Brien blocked the WUI from admission to the ITUC. Larkin was elected to Dáil Éireann at the September 1927 general election. However, the Labour Party prevented him from taking his seat as an undischarged bankrupt for losing a libel case against Labour leader Tom Johnson.

In 1932, the Labour Party supported Éamon de Valera's first Fianna Fáil government, which had proposed a programme of social reform with which the party was in sympathy. In the 1943 general election the party won 17 seats, its best result since 1927.

The Irish Labour Party and the Irish Trades Union Congress separated in 1930. Future leader William Norton was prominent in urging the separation of the political and industrial wings of the labour movement into autonomous organisations, arguing that the move was necessary to broaden the party's electoral appeal beyond a trade union constituency.

The party was socially conservative compared to similar European parties, and its leaders from 1932 to 1977 (William Norton and his successor Brendan Corish) were members of the Catholic fraternal organisation the Knights of Saint Columbanus. The early to mid-20th century marked constant battles within Labour about whether to appease the Catholic Church or to take on a more militant labour approach.

Split with National Labour and the first coalition governments
Despite efforts in the 1930s to sternly downplay the idea of Communist influence over the party, by the 1940s internal conflict and complementary allegations of communist infiltration caused a split in the Labour Party and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Tensions peaked in 1941 when party founder Jim Larkin and a number of his supporters were re-admitted to the party and subsequently accused of "taking over" Labour branches in Dublin. In response William X. O'Brien left with six TDs in 1944, founding the National Labour Party, whose leader was James Everett. O'Brien also withdrew the ITGWU from the Irish Trades Unions Congress and set up his own congress. The split damaged the Labour movement in the 1944 general election. The ITGWU attacked "Larkinite and Communist Party elements" which it claimed had taken over the Labour Party. The split and the anti-communist assault put Labour on the defensive. It launched its own inquiry into communist involvement, which resulted in the expulsion of six members. Alfred O'Rahilly in The Communist Front and the Attack on Irish Labour widened the assault to include the influence of British-based unions and communists in the ITUC. The National Labour Party juxtaposed itself against this by emphasising its commitment to Catholic Social Teaching. However, Labour also continued to emphasise its anti-communist credentials. It was only after Larkin's death in 1947 that an attempt at unity could be made.

After the 1948 general election National Labour had five TDs – Everett, Dan Spring, James Pattison, James Hickey and John O'Leary. National Labour and Labour (with 14 TDs) both entered the First Inter-Party Government, with the leader of National Labour becoming Minister for Posts and Telegraphs. In 1950, the National Labour TDs rejoined the Labour Party.

From 1948 to 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, the Labour Party was the second-largest partner in the two inter-party governments (the largest being Fine Gael). William Norton, the Labour Party leader, became Tánaiste on both occasions. During the First Inter-Party Government he served as Minister for Social Welfare, while during the Second Inter-Party Government he served as Minister for Industry and Commerce. (See first inter-party government and second inter-party government.)

Re-establishment in Northern Ireland
The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 and Ireland Act 1949 precipitated a split in the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) with Jack Macgougan leading anti-Partition members out and affiliating branches to the Dublin party, joined by other left-wing and nationalist representatives and branded locally as "Irish Labour". At Westminster, Jack Beattie held Belfast West from 1951 to 1955; the British Labour party refused Beattie its whip. At Stormont, Belfast Dock was won by Murtagh Morgan in 1953 and Paddy Devlin in 1962, but Devlin in 1964 left for the Republican Labour Party and Irish Labour contested no further Westminster or Stormont elections. In the 1949 local elections it won 7 seats on Belfast City Council, 6 (unopposed) on Armagh urban district council (UDC) and one on Dungannon UDC. In Derry, the party collapsed when Stephen McGonagle left after 1952. It was strongest in Warrenpoint and Newry UDCs, winning control of the former in 1949 and the latter in 1958, retaining seats in both until their 1973 abolition. Tommy Markey was expelled from the party in 1964 for taking a salute as Newry council chair from the Irish Guards. Party branches still existed in Warrenpoint and Newry as late as 1982, though candidates were heavily defeated in Newry and Mourne District Council at the 1973 local elections. The Social Democratic and Labour Party founded in 1970 took most of Irish Labour's voters and soon had its formal endorsement.

Under Brendan Corish, 1960–1977
Brendan Corish became the new Labour leader in 1960. As leader, he advocated for more socialist policies to be adopted by the party; although initially tempering by this describing these policies as "a form of Christian socialism", he would later feel comfortable enough to drop the "Christian" prefix. In contrast to his predecessors, Corish adopted an anti-coalition stance. He attempted to give his fractious, divided party a coherent national identity, lurched it to the left and insisted Labour was the natural party of social justice. In the late 1960s, Labour began to embrace the 'New Left,' and Corish presented his A New Republic document at the 1967 Labour national conference, alongside a famous speech which declared that "The seventies will be socialist", which later became a Labour campaign slogan. Corish's new socialist direction for Labour was generally well-received internally; the membership's faith in Corish had already been bolstered by encouraging election results in 1965 and 1967.

Although Labour's share of the vote improved to 17% in the 1969 Irish general election, the best in 50 years, the party only won 17 seats - 5 fewer than in the 1965 general election. The result dented Corish's confidence and caused him to reconsider his anti-coalition stance.

Labour promoted a Eurosceptic outlook in the 1961 general election, and in 1972, the party campaigned against membership of the European Economic Community (EEC).

Between 1973 and 1977, the Labour Party formed a coalition government with Fine Gael. The coalition partners lost the subsequent 1977 general election, and Corish resigned immediately after the defeat.

Late 1970s and 1980s: Coalition, internal feuding, electoral decline and regrowth
In 1977, shortly after the election defeat, members grouped around the Liaison Committee for the Labour Left split from Labour and formed the short-lived Socialist Labour Party. From 1981 to 1982 and from 1982 to 1987, the Labour Party participated in coalition governments with Fine Gael. While serving in coalition Labour was successful in averting steep cuts in social welfare favoured by Fine Gael. labour ministers also presided over a number of social policy initiatives such as a Family Income Supplement, a child care protection bill, a Maternity Benefit, a social employment scheme, the establishment of a Youth employment agency, and the adoption of an equa treatment directive. Nevertheless, as noted by one study, “voters did not reward them. Instead they were disappointed by Labour's inability to implement more of its own policies (Marsh and Mitchell 1999:49).”

In the later part of the second of these coalition terms, the country's poor economic and fiscal situation required strict curtailing of government spending, and the Labour Party bore much of the blame for unpopular cutbacks in health and other public services. The nadir for the Labour party was the 1987 general election where it received only 6.4% of the vote. Its vote was increasingly threatened by the growth of the Marxist and more radical Workers' Party, particularly in Dublin. Fianna Fáil formed a minority government from 1987 to 1989 and then a coalition with the Progressive Democrats.

The 1980s saw fierce disagreements between the wings of the party. The more radical elements, Labour Left, led by such figures as Emmet Stagg, Sam Nolan, Frank Buckley and Helena Sheehan, and Militant Tendency, led by Joe Higgins, opposed the idea of Labour entering into coalition government with either of the major centre-right parties (Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael). At the 1989 Labour Party conference in Tralee a number of socialist and Trotskyist activists, organised around the Militant Tendency and their internal newspaper, were expelled. Amongst those expelled included future TDs Clare Daly, Ruth Coppinger and Mick Barry as well as Joe Higgins, who went on to found the Socialist Party in 1996.

1990s: Growing political influence and involvement
The early 1990s saw a sustained period of growth for the Labour Party. In 1990 former Labour Senator Mary Robinson became the first President of Ireland to have been proposed by the Labour Party. Although she had contested the election as an independent candidate, having resigned from the party over her opposition to the Anglo Irish Agreement, her victory was generally considered as reflecting very well on Labour, who had supported her campaign. Not only was it the first time a woman held the office but it was the first time, apart from Douglas Hyde, that a non-Fianna Fáil candidate was elected. It was also in 1990 that Limerick East TD Jim Kemmy's Democratic Socialist Party merged into the Labour Party, and in 1992 Sligo–Leitrim TD Declan Bree's Independent Socialist Party also followed suit and joined the Labour Party.

At the 1992 general election the Labour Party won a record 19.3% of the first preference votes, more than twice its share in the 1989 general election. The party's representation in the Dáil doubled to 33 seats in a momentum swing dubbed by the Irish national media as the "Spring Tide", who attributed much of the surge in the party's popularity to its leader Dick Spring. After a period of negotiations, the Labour Party formed a coalition with Fianna Fáil, taking office in January 1993 as the 23rd government of Ireland. Fianna Fáil leader Albert Reynolds remained as Taoiseach, and Labour Party leader Dick Spring became Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

After less than two years the government fell in a controversy over the appointment of Attorney General, Harry Whelehan, as president of the High Court. The parliamentary arithmetic had changed as a result of Fianna Fáil's loss of two seats in by-elections in June, where the Labour Party itself had performed disastrously. On the pretext that the Labour Party voters were not happy with involvement with Fianna Fáil, Dick Spring withdrew his support for Reynolds as Taoiseach. The Labour Party negotiated a new coalition, the first time in Irish political history that one coalition replaced another without a general election. Between 1994 and 1997 Fine Gael, the Labour Party, and Democratic Left governed in the 24th government of Ireland. Dick Spring became Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs again. Labour greatly influenced the policy document for the 1993-1994 coalition, with one observer noting that Fianna Fáil's policy document for the coalition "contained lots of our policies, While swaths of texts were lifted from our manifesto". (Bowcott 1993)

Merger with Democratic Left
The Labour Party presented the 1997 general election, held just weeks after spectacular electoral victories for the French Socialist Party and British Labour Party, as the first-ever choice between a government of the left and one of the right; but the party, as had often been the case following its participation in coalitions, lost support and lost half of its TDs. Labour's losses were so severe that while Fine Gael gained seats, it still came up well short of the support it needed to keep Bruton in office. This, combined with a poor showing by Labour Party candidate Adi Roche in the subsequent election for President of Ireland, led to Spring's resignation as party leader.

In 1997 Ruairi Quinn became the new Labour Party leader. Following negotiations in 1999, the Labour Party merged with Democratic Left, keeping the name of the larger partner. This had been previously opposed by the former leader Dick Spring. Members of Democratic Left in Northern Ireland were invited to join the Irish Labour Party but were not permitted to organise.

Quinn resigned as leader in 2002 following the poor results for the Labour Party in the 2002 general election. Former Democratic Left TD Pat Rabbitte became the new leader, the first to be elected directly by the members of the party.

Rabbitte as leader 2002 to 2007
Prior to the 2004 local elections, party leader Pat Rabbitte had endorsed a mutual transfer pact with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. Rabbitte proposed an extension of this strategy, named "the Mullingar Accord", going into the 2007 general election. Although Rabbitte's strategy was opposed by some influential members such as Brendan Howlin it was supported by approximately 80% of Labour conference delegates. However, at 2007 general election the Labour Party failed to increase its seat total and had a net loss of 1 seat, returning with 20 seats. Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the Green Party and independents did not have enough seats to form a government. Pat Rabbitte resisted calls to enter negotiations with Fianna Fáil on forming a government. Eventually, Fianna Fáil entered government with the Progressive Democrats and the Green Party with the support of independents. In the aftermath, Rabbitte resigned as Labour Party leader in late August, taking responsibility for the general election result. In his wake Eamon Gilmore was elected, unopposed, as the new Labour leader.

Initial surge of support
Following the onset of the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, Labour's political fortunes began to alter rapidly. At the local elections of 5 June 2009, the Labour Party added 31 new councillors to their tally and performed particularly well in the Dublin region. At the 2009 European Parliament election held on the same day, the Labour Party increased its number of seats from one to three, retaining the seat of Proinsias De Rossa in the Dublin constituency, while gaining seats in the East constituency with Nessa Childers, and in the South constituency with Alan Kelly. It was the first time since the 1979 European Parliament Elections that Labour had equalled the number of seats held in Europe by either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.

On 11 June 2010, a poll by MRBI was published in The Irish Times which, for the first time in the history of the state, showed the Labour Party as the most popular, at 32%, ahead of Fine Gael at 28% and Fianna Fáil at 17%. Eamon Gilmore's approval ratings were also the highest of any Dáil leader, standing at 46%.

Entering government in 2011 and subsequent decline in support
At the 2011 general election, Labour received 19.5% of first preference votes, and 37 seats. It was the most seats the Labour party had ever won in the Dáil, and their highest percentage of first-preference-votes since the Spring Tide of 1992. On 9 March 2011, it became the junior partner in a coalition government with Fine Gael for the period of the 31st Dáil. Eamon Gilmore was appointed as Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In October 2011 the Labour Party's candidate, Michael D. Higgins was elected as the 9th (and current) President of Ireland. On the same day, Labour's Patrick Nulty won the Dublin West by-election, making the Labour Party the first government party in Ireland to win a by-election since 1982.

Labour lost seven parliamentary members over the course of the 31st Dáil. On 15 November 2011 Willie Penrose resigned over the closure of an army barracks in his constituency. On 1 December 2011 Tommy Broughan lost the party whip after voting against the government in relation to the Bank Guarantee Scheme. On 6 December 2011 Patrick Nulty lost the party whip after voting against the VAT increase in the 2012 budget. On 26 September 2012 Róisín Shortall resigned as Minister of State for Primary Care and lost the party whip after conflict with the Minister for Health James Reilly. On 13 December 2012 Colm Keaveney lost the party whip after voting against the cut to the respite care grant in the 2013 budget. Senator James Heffernan lost the party whip in December 2012 after voting against the government on the Social Welfare Bill. MEP Nessa Childers resigned from the parliamentary party on 5 April 2013, saying that she "no longer want[ed] to support a Government that is actually hurting people", and she resigned from the party in July 2013. In June 2013, Patrick Nulty and Colm Keaveney resigned from the Labour Party. Willie Penrose returned to the parliamentary Labour Party in October 2013.

On 26 May 2014, Gilmore resigned as party leader after Labour's poor performance in the European and local elections. On 4 July 2014, Joan Burton won the leadership election, defeating Alex White by 78% to 22%. On her election, she said that the Labour Party "would focus on social repair, and govern more with the heart". Burton was the first woman to lead the Labour Party.

2016
In the 2016 general election, Labour achieved a poor result, receiving only 6.6% of first preference votes, and 7 seats. It was the worst general election in its history, with a loss of 30 seats on its showing in 2011.

On 20 May 2016, Brendan Howlin was elected unopposed as leader; some controversy arose from the fact that there was no contest for the leadership because none of his parliamentary colleagues were prepared to second the nomination of Alan Kelly. Howlin stated that as leader he was prepared to bring Labour back into government, citing the lack of influence on policy from opposition. He denied any suggestions that Labour could lose any further support from their 2016 performance, stating "We're not some outfit that comes out of the morning mist and disappears again. We're the oldest party in the state".

2019–present
In the Irish local elections and the European Parliament election of May 2019, despite a decreased vote share by 1.4%, Labour increased their seat count on local authorities to 57, an increase of six. However, the party failed to win a European seat, leaving the S&D Group unrepresented by an Irish MEP for the first time since 1984. At the February 2020 election, the party's first preference vote dropped to 4.4%, a record low. In the subsequent Seanad elections, Labour won 5 seats, which tied them with Sinn Féin as the third-largest party in the House.

After the general election, Brendan Howlin announced his intention to step down as the leader of the Labour Party. On 3 April 2020 Alan Kelly was elected as party leader, edging out fellow Dáil colleague Aodhán Ó Ríordáin 55% to 45%. In July 2021, the party gained a seventh TD in the Dáil after Ivana Bacik won the 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election. In March 2022, Kelly resigned suddenly as leader, less than two years into the role and having not lead the party into an election. He did so upon being informed by Sean Sherlock and Duncan Smith, both of whom had supported him in his leadership bid, along with Mark Wall, that the parliamentary party had lost "collective confidence" in his leadership. The plan to remove him was devised by the parliamentary party in the home of Senator Marie Sherlock, in the absence of Kelly. An internal report reportedly showed that every one of the party's nationally elected representatives were at risk of losing their seats in the next general election. Kelly became emotional as he announced his resignation, stating that the decision by the parliamentary party was a "surprise" to him, but that he accepted it immediately. On 24 March 2022 Ivana Bacik was confirmed as the new leader of the party unopposed at a conference in Dublin.

At the 2024 European Parliament election, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin was elected in the Dublin constituency, the first MEP elected for the party since 2009.

Overview
The Labour Party is a party of the centre-left   which has been described as a social democratic party but is referred to in its constitution as a democratic socialist party. Its constitution refers to the party as a "movement of democratic socialists, social democrats, environmentalists, progressives, feminists (and) trade unionists". It has been described as a "big tent" party by the Irish Independent.

The stance of the Labour Party has changed dramatically over time. In 1964, American historian Emmet Larkin described the Irish Labour Party as "the most opportunistically conservative Labour Party anywhere in the known world," due to its Catholic outlook in an Ireland where 95 percent of the population was Roman Catholic. It was known for its longstanding unwillingness (along with Ireland's other major parties) to support any policy that could be construed as sympathetic to secularism or communism. However, from the 1980s it was associated with advocacy for socially liberal policies, with former leader Eamon Gilmore stating in 2007 that "more than any other political movement, it was Labour and its allies which drove the modernisation of the Irish state."

In the past Labour has been referred to, derisively, as "the political wing of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul." That Labour was influenced by Catholicism is not unusual in the Irish context (likewise, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were also products of a predominantly Catholic society). Labour's ethos and often its language was profoundly Christian. Following the official separation of the Irish Labour Party and Irish Trade Union Congress into two different organisations in 1930, early drafts of Labour's constitution referred to the responsibilities of the 'Christian state', but these had all been removed by the time the constitution was put before the new party's conference for approval. However, the Free State's commitment to a full-scale devotional revival of Catholicism was reflected in the outlook and policies of the party. The 'Starry Plough,' the traditional symbol of Labour, reflects a Catholic tradition and biblical reference to Isaiah 2:3-4, which is integral to its design. Like Fianna Fáil, Labour embraced corporatist policies, again influenced by the Catholic Church. This was deemed to be important for both in terms of winning electoral support from the lower and middle classes. However, Labour later became associated with increasing secularism  and championing socially liberal causes in relation to contraception, divorce, LGBT rights and abortion. Its support base also shifted greatly towards postmaterialists. The Labour Party also changed its position from Euroscepticism in 1972 to pro-Europeanism and ideological integration with European social-democratic parties.

LGBT rights policies
The Labour Party has been involved in various campaigns for LGBT rights and put forward many bills. The party was in government in 1993 when homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland, and it was President Mary Robinson, herself a longstanding LGBT advocate, who signed the bill into law. Mervyn Taylor published the Employment Equality Bill in 1996, which was enacted in 1998, outlawing discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of sexual orientation. Taylor also published the Equal Status Bill in 1997, enacted in 2000, outlawing discrimination in the provision of goods and services on grounds listed including sexual orientation.

At the 2002 general election, only the manifestos of the Green Party and Labour explicitly referred to the rights of same-sex couples.

In 2003, Labour LGBT was founded. This was the first time a political party in Ireland had formed an LGBT wing.

In December 2006, Labour TD Brendan Howlin tabled a private member's civil unions bill in Dáil Éireann, proposing the legalisation of civil partnerships and adoption for same-sex couples. The Fianna Fáil government amended the bill to delay it for six months time, however the Dáil was dissolved for the 2007 Irish general election before this could happen. Labour again brought this bill before the Dáil in 2007 but it was voted down by the government, with the Green Party, who had formerly supported gay marriage, also voting in opposition to the bill, with spokesperson Ciarán Cuffe arguing that the bill was unconstitutional.

At their 2010 national conference Labour passed a motion calling for transgender rights and to legislate for a gender recognition act.

During their time in government, Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote.

Social policies
Labour supported the repeal of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland in 2018 to legalise abortion, and canvassed for a Yes vote in that referendum.

Alan Kelly sponsored a bill in 2020 that called for all workers to receive a legal right to sick pay, as well as paid leave for employees whose children have to stay home from school due to COVID-19 measures. The government amended this bill to delay it for six months, a decision that senator Marie Sherlock branded as "unacceptable".

Education policies
In 2020, Labour TD Aodhán Ó Riordáin successfully campaigned for Ireland's free school meals campaign to be extended across summer.

Labour have called for all primary education to be made free by providing grants for books, uniforms and students, and ending the two tier pay system for teachers and secretaries.

Housing policies
In 2020, Labour proposed building 80,000 social and affordable houses, investing €16 billion into housing and freezing rents. In 2021, they called for a three-year rent freeze and a tax to be placed on vacant houses, as well as investment into student housing and preventing student housing from being converted to short term rentals.

Health policies
In their 2020 manifesto, Labour proposed spending an additional 1 billion euro per year on health and delivering free GP care for all under 18s.

In 2021, Labour proposed nationalising two hospitals - one in Dublin and one in either Galway or Cork.

Climate policies
In their climate manifesto in 2020, the party called for halving the country's emissions by 2030, supporting farms transitioning to more environmental forms of farming, restoring peatlands and bogs, banning offshore drilling and supporting a just transition.

Drug policies
The Labour Party supports the legalisation of cannabis for recreational and medicinal purposes, having outlined this policy in their submission to the Citizen's Assembly on drug use in July 2023.

In 2017, Labour leader Brendan Howlin became the first traditional party leader to back the full decriminalisation of cannabis in Ireland. This came after a motion endorsed by Aodhán Ó Riordáin supporting the legalisation of cannabis for recreational usage was passed at Labour conference. Ó Riordáin had previously voiced his support for the decriminalisation of all drugs, stating that "About 70 per cent of the drugs cases that are before our courts at the moment are for possession for personal use, which to be honest is a complete waste of garda time and criminal justice time", saying that someone suffering from addiction "is fundamentally a patient, who should be surrounded by compassion, not somebody who should be sitting in a court room."

The previous party leader Alan Kelly has stated that he supports the legalisation of cannabis in Ireland on both medicinal and recreational grounds, and current party leader Ivana Bacik has also spoken in support of the legalisation of cannabis.

Cultural policies
The party has called for a campaign to promote the usage of spoken Irish, funding outreach initiatives for minorities and marginalised communities and creating a fund for artists.

Historical archives
The Labour Party donated its archives to the National Library of Ireland in 2012. The records can be accessed by means of the call number: MS 49,494. Subsequently, the records of Democratic Left were also donated to the library and can be access via the call number: MS 49,807.

Structure
The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of Labour (Dáil) constituency councils, affiliated trade unions and socialist societies. Members who are elected to parliamentary positions (Dáil, Seanad, European Parliament) form the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). The party's decision-making bodies on a national level formally include the executive board (formerly known as the National Executive Committee), Labour Party Conference and Central Council. The executive board has responsibility for organisation and finance, with the Central Council being responsible for policy formation – although in practice the Parliamentary leadership has the final say on policy. The Labour Party Conference debates motions put forward by branches, constituency councils, party members sections and affiliates. Motions set principles of policy and organisation but are not generally detailed policy statements.

For many years Labour held to a policy of not allowing residents of Northern Ireland to apply for membership, instead supporting the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). The National Conference approved the establishment of a Northern Ireland Members Forum but it has not agreed to contest elections there.

As a party with a constitutional commitment to democratic socialism founded by trade unions to represent the interests of working class people, Labour's link with unions has always been a defining characteristic of the party. Over time this link has come under increasing strain, with most craft based unions based in the public sector and Irish Congress of Trades Unions having disaffiliated since the 1950s. The remaining affiliated unions are primarily private sector general unions. Currently affiliated unions still send delegates to the National Conference in proportion to the size of their membership. Recent constitutional changes mean that in future, affiliated unions will send delegations based on the number of party members in their organisation.

Sections
Within the Labour Party there are different sections:
 * Labour Youth
 * Labour Women
 * Labour Trade Unionists
 * Labour Councillors
 * Labour Equality (this section also includes groups such as Labour LGBT)
 * Labour Disability

Affiliates
The Irish Labour Party constitution makes provision for both Trade Unions and Socialist Societies to affiliate to the party. There are currently seven Trade Unions affiliated to the Party:

 * Munster & District Graphical Society
 * Fórsa (Municipal Employees Division)
 * National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)
 * General, Municipal and Boilermakers' Union (GMB)
 * Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU)
 * Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFWAU)
 * Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA)

Socialist Societies Affiliated to the Party:
 * Labour Party Lawyers Group
 * Association of Labour Teachers
 * Labour Social Services Group

Party leader
The current party leader is Ivana Bacik. Bacik took office on 24 March 2022 following the resignation of the previous leader.

Parliamentary Labour Party
The Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the section of the party that is made up of its members of the Houses of the Oireachtas and of the European Parliament. As of July 2024 there are 11 members of the PLP: 6 TDs and 4 senators and one MEP.

Councillors
At the 2014 local elections Labour lost more than half of local authority seats; 51 councillors were elected - this result led to the resignation of party leader, Eamon Gilmore. Following the 2019 Irish local elections, the party had 57 local representatives.

title: Labour Party (Ireland)


text:
James Ryan (Irish politician)

James Ryan (6 December 1892 – 25 September 1970) was an Irish medical doctor, revolutionary and politician who served in every Fianna Fáil government from 1932 to 1965, successively as Minister for Agriculture (1932–1947), Health and Social Welfare (1947–1948 and 1951–1954), and Finance (1957–1965). He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Wexford from 1918 to 1922 and 1923 to 1965, and as senator from 1965 to 1969. He was a member of Sinn Féin until he joined Fianna Fáil upon that party's foundation in 1926.

Early and private life
Ryan was born on the family farm at Tomcoole, near Taghmon, County Wexford, in 1892. The second-youngest of twelve children, he was educated at St Peter's College, Wexford, and Ring College, Waterford. In 1911, he won a county council scholarship to University College Dublin where he studied medicine.

In March 1917 Jim Ryan, as he was always known by his comrades, passed his final medical examinations; that June he set up medical practice in Wexford town. In 1921 Ryan moved to Dublin where he opened a doctor's practice at Harcourt Street, specialising in skin diseases at the Skin and Cancer Hospital on Holles Street. He left medicine in 1925, after he bought Kindlestown, a large farm near Delgany, County Wicklow. Ryan lived there and it remained a working farm until his death.

In July 1919, Ryan married Máirín Cregan, originally from County Kerry and a close friend of Sinéad de Valera throughout her life. Cregan, like her husband, had also fought in the Easter Rising and was subsequently an author of children's stories in Irish. They had three children together.

One of Ryan's sisters, Mary Kate, married Seán T. O'Kelly, one of Ryan's future cabinet colleagues and a future President of Ireland. Following her death O'Kelly married her sister, Phyllis Ryan. Another of Ryan's sisters, Josephine ('Min') Ryan, married Richard Mulcahy, a future leader of Fine Gael. Another sister, Agnes, married Denis McCullough, a Cumann na nGaedheal TD from 1924 to 1927. He is also the great-grandfather of Ireland and Leinster Rugby player James Ryan

Revolutionary career
While studying at university in 1913 Ryan joined the Gaelic League at Clonmel. The company commander recruited the young Catholic nationalist, who became a founder-member of the Irish Volunteers and was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood the following year. In 1916 he went first to Cork to deliver a message from Seán Mac Diarmada to Tomás Mac Curtain that the Easter Rising was due to happen on Easter Sunday, then to Cork again in a 12-hour journey in a car driven by MacNeill's brother James to deliver Eoin MacNeill's cancellation order, which attempted to stop the Easter Rising, but then, from when he arrived back on Tuesday, served as the medical officer in the General Post Office (GPO) and treated many wounds, including James Connolly's shattered ankle, a wound which gradually turned gangrenous. He was, along with Connolly, one of the last people to leave the GPO when the evacuation took place. Following the surrender of the garrison Ryan was deported to HM Prison Stafford in England and subsequently Frongoch internment camp. He was released in August 1916.

Ryan rejoined the Volunteers immediately after his release from prison, and in June 1917, he was elected Commandant of the Wexford Battalion. His political career began the following year when he was elected as a Sinn Féin candidate for the constituency of Wexford South in the 1918 general election. Like his fellow Sinn Féin MPs, Ryan refused to attend the Westminster Parliament. Instead he attended the proceedings of the First Dáil on 21 January 1919. As the War of Independence went on, Ryan became Brigade Commandant of South Wexford and was also elected to Wexford County Council, serving as chairman on one occasion. In September 1919, he was arrested by the British and interned on Spike Island and later Bere Island. In February 1921, Ryan was imprisoned at Kilworth Internment Camp, County Cork. He was later moved on Ballykinlar Barracks in Co Down and released in August 1921.

In the 1922 "pact election" Ryan and one of the other two anti-Treaty Wexford TDs lost their seats to pro-Treaty candidates. During the Civil War, Jim Ryan was arrested and held in Mountjoy Prison before being transferred to Tintown Camp, The Curragh where he embarked on a 36-day hunger strike. Whilst interned he won back his Dáil seat as an abstentionist at the 1923 general election. He was released from prison in December 1923.

Political career
In 1926, Ryan was among the Sinn Féin TDs who followed leader Éamon de Valera out of the party to found Fianna Fáil. They entered the Dáil in 1927 and spent five years on the opposition benches.

Minister for Agriculture
Following the 1932 general election, Fianna Fáil came to office and Ryan was appointed as Minister for Agriculture, a position he would continuously hold for fifteen years. In agriculture the government's policy was based on the idea of self-sufficiency or autarky. "Irish farmers should have always been looking for prosperity from the towns of Britain. If they got people working in our own towns they would consume Irish produce," he declared at Blackwater, County Wexford calling it the idea of a cyclical arrangement.

Ryan was given the task of implementing the following policies: imports of wheat, sugar and other agricultural produce were restricted; farmers were given a guaranteed price for wheat; farmers were forced to use home-produced grain in animal feed and bakers had to use a certain percentage of Irish flour in their bread; and the sugar beet industry was expanded with the opening of new factories.

While these policies saw increases in sugar-beet production and in the growing of wheat the small farmers of Munster and Connacht gained little while the large farmers were the real beneficiaries. Ryan faced severe criticism over the Economic War with Britain: serious harm was done to the cattle trade, Ireland's main export earner. The government tried to compensate by giving bounties equal to the British duties, however, these had to be paid for by the taxpayer. The economic war ended in 1938 with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement between both governments, after a series of talks in London between the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, de Valera, Ryan and Seán Lemass.

During World War II self-sufficiency in food became essential. The Department of Agriculture ordered every farmer to till one-eighth of his land. This was raised to three-eighths in 1944. In spite of strict rationing and severe shortages, basic foodstuffs remained available. At war's end farmers discontent emerged once again. A new political party, Clann na Talmhan, was established in the late 1930s to represent the interests of smaller farmers in the west of Ireland. Similarly, much of the country's land had become exhausted due to increased wartime productivity and a shortage of fertilisers.

As Minister for Agriculture, Ryan was also involved the handover of Johnstown Castle estate, County Wexford in 1945. The facility became an important soil research centre initially under the Department for Agriculture and later as An Foras Talúntais (now Teagasc).

Minister for Health and Social Welfare
In 1947, after spending fifteen years as Minister for Agriculture, Ryan was appointed to the newly created positions of Minister for Health and Minister for Social Welfare. The minister brought the draft Health Bill to the cabinet's attention later that year. This legislation proposed to modernise the health service into two aspects – mother and child welfare and infectious diseases. De Valera was anxious about accepting these measures as government policy due to opposition from the Catholic Church. In fact, much of the legislation was enacted by Noel Browne, Ryan's successor as Minister from 1948 to 1951. Following Fianna Fáil's return to power at the 1951 general election, Ryan returned as Minister for Health and Social Welfare. During his second period in office he clashed with the Church once again over the implementation of the remaining aspects of the Mother and Child Scheme. Following negotiations with the hierarchy, adjustments on such issues as means testing and medical inspections were made and the legislation was passed in the Dáil. Following the 1954 general election, Fianna Fáil lost power and Ryan moved to the backbenches once again.

Minister for Finance
Following the 1957 general election, Fianna Fáil were back in office and de Valera's cabinet had a new look to it. In a clear message that there would be a change to economic policy Ryan, a close ally of Seán Lemass, was appointed Minister for Finance, replacing the conservative Seán MacEntee. The first sign of a new economic approach came in 1958, when Ryan brought the First Programme for Economic Development to the cabinet table. This plan, the brainchild of T. K. Whitaker, recognised that Ireland would have to move away from self-sufficiency towards free trade. It also proposed that foreign firms should be given grants and tax breaks to set up in Ireland.

When Seán Lemass succeeded de Valera as Taoiseach in 1959, Ryan was re-appointed as Minister for Finance. Lemass wanted to reward him for his loyalty by also naming him Tánaiste; however, the new leader felt obliged to appoint Seán MacEntee, one of the party elders to the position. Ryan continued to implement the First Programme throughout the early 1960s, achieving a record growth rate of 4 per cent by 1963. That year an even more ambitious Second Programme was introduced; however, it overreached and had to be abandoned. In spite of this, the annual growth rate averaged five per cent, the highest achieved since independence.

Retirement and death
Ryan did not stand in the 1965 general election, after which he was nominated by the Taoiseach to Seanad Éireann, where he joined his son, Eoin Ryan Snr. At the 1969 dissolution he retired to his farm at Kindlestown in County Wicklow, where he died at age 77 on 25 September 1970. His grandson Eoin Ryan Jnr served in the Oireachtas from 1989 to 2007 and later in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009.

title: James Ryan (Irish politician)


text:
Seán MacEntee

Seán Francis MacEntee (Seán Mac an tSaoi; 23 August 1889 – 9 January 1984) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Tánaiste from 1959 to 1965, 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 family's 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 Mary's Christian Brothers School, St Malachy's College and the Belfast Municipal College of Technology 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 city's 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 government's policy was dubbed Hibernia Irredenta or 'Greening Ireland'. 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 MacEntee's 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 (1932–1948)
In 1932, Fianna Fáil came to power for the very first time, with MacEntee becoming Minister for Finance. In keeping with the party's 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.

During the Dáil debates on the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, MacEntee described it as 'the Constitution of a Catholic State'.

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.

Later Fianna Fáil governments (1951–1954, 1957–1965)
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 MacEntee's 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 Margaret's brothers were Cardinal Michael Browne, poet and academic Monsignor Pádraig de Brún, and author Monsignor Maurice Browne. One of Seán and Margaret's daughters was the Irish poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi (1922 - 2021). She was married to the politician Conor Cruise O'Brien until his death. Their other daughter was Barbara MacEntee-Biggar (1928–1995), who was married to Irish Ambassador Frank Biggar (1917–1974); Barbara and Frank's eldest son is former Irish ambassador John Biggar (1952–). Barbara and Frank's third son was Maurice Biggar (1956–2023), a "young star of L&H debates, diplomat, barrister, gaeilgeoir, linguist and poet". 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 ("Sage's 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)

title: Seán MacEntee