Patrick Cooney
Patrick Mark Cooney is a former Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Education from 1986 to 1987, Minister for Defence from 1982 to 1986, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1981 to 1982 and Minister for Justice from 1973 to 1977. He served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Leinster constituency from 1989 to 1994. He served as a Teachta Dála for the Longford–Westmeath constituency from 1970 to 1977 and between 1981 and 1989. He also served as a Senator for the Labour Panel from 1977 to 1981.
Cooney was born in 1931 and was educated at Castleknock College and University College Dublin. He first stood as a candidate for Dáil Éireann in the Longford–Westmeath constituency at the 1961 general election, but failed to win a seat, and he was defeated again in 1965 and 1969. However, after the death of the Fianna Fáil TD Patrick Lenihan, Cooney was elected to the 19th Dáil in the Longford–Westmeath by-election in April 1970.
The 1973 general election brought a Fine Gael-Labour Party National Coalition government to power, and Cooney was appointed to Liam Cosgrave's Cabinet as Minister for Justice. He ordered the coffin of Frank Stagg, an IRA volunteer, to be covered in concrete. In spite of being a high-profile Cabinet Minister he lost his seat at the 1977 general election, but was subsequently elected to the 14th Seanad on the Cultural and Educational Panel. In 1979, at the first direct elections to the European Parliament, he stood unsuccessfully in the Connacht–Ulster constituency.
At the 1981 general election, he was returned to the Dáil again for his old Longford–Westmeath constituency. Cooney then held a number of positions in Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald's two governments. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Leinster constituency at the 1989 European Parliament elections, and did not contest the 1989 general election. He did not stand for re-election in 1994.
