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The political career of Michael Tierney, 1920–44

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2015

Peter Martin
Peter Martin*
Affiliation:
School of History and Anthropology, Queen's University Belfast
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Extract

Although Michael Tierney became famous as a controversial, reforming president of U.C.D., he had been a ubiquitous figure in Irish national politics for over twenty years before. A radical member of Cumann na nGaedheal and a key intellectual influence on the early Fine Gael party, he reinvented himself as a political independent, and campaigned for a vocational model of government in Ireland in line with papal teaching. He was that rarity in Irish politics – a political conservative who was also a public intellectual, and who tried to build a political career based on the quality of his ideas rather than tribal loyalties.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 147 , May 2011 , pp. 412 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2011

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108 This article was written using research conducted during a post-doctoral fellowship at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, and was funded by the Humanities Institute of Ireland, U.C.D.