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Jackie Healy-Rae 9 March 1931 – 5 December 2014

Jackie Healy-Rae (9 March 1931 – 5 December 2014) was an Irish politician who served as an independent Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry South constituency from 1997 to 2011.

Early and private life

Born John Patrick Healy just outside Kilgarvan, County Kerry, he was the first of six children born to Daniel and Mary Healy, and he grew up on the family farm. The Rae part of his surname derives from the local townland where he was born, Reacaisleach. He was educated at the local national school in Kilgarvan. He emigrated to the United States in 1953, but soon returned to Ireland. He played for the local hurling and Gaelic football teams in Kilgarvan, where he won two senior county hurling titles with the club in 1956 and 1958.

He was also a saxophone player with the Kilgarvan Dance Band. By the 1960s he was well established in the plant hire business in south Kerry. In 1969, he became a publican when he purchased an old premises that had been closed for some time in Kilgarvan. The family pub is now run by his son, Danny.

Healy-Rae was married to Julie Healy. Two sons, Danny and Michael were members of Kerry County Council for the Killarney and Killorglin electoral areas respectively before becoming TDs. His eldest daughter Joan (Mrs. Larkin) teaches in a Catholic school in New York. His other daughter, Rosemary, is a barrister-at-law. She was appointed to a paid position on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal in 2007. She was re-appointed, for three further years, by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern on 11 November 2010. A son, Denis, runs his own business, and another son, John Healy (he does not use Rae), is a full-time official with and former president of the Garda Representative Association.

Political career

Early involvement

Healy-Rae first became involved in politics in the 1960s. He headed several Fianna Fáil by-election campaigns, most notably the election of John O'Leary to the Dáil in 1966. O'Leary retained the seat for thirty-one years. Healy-Rae later lent his services to several other Fianna Fáil election campaigns in County Limerick, County Cork and County Galway. In 1973 Healy-Rae was first co-opted to Kerry County Council as a Fianna Fáil member, following the death of sitting councillor Michael Doherty. He was elected to the council in his own right in 1974 and re-elected in every subsequent election. Healy-Rae served on the council for 30 years until he had to resign his seat because of the abolition of the dual mandate in 2003.

During the 1970s and 1980s Healy-Rae served three times as Fianna Fáil's director of elections in Kerry South. In this capacity he was given the task of delivering two of the three seats for the Fianna Fáil party.

Election to Dáil Éireann

Healy-Rae broke from Fianna Fáil in controversial circumstances prior to the 1997 general election. When the party refused to nominate him as a candidate in Kerry South, he decided to run as an Independent candidate. This move surprised the party, with many commentators giving him little chance of getting elected. However, Healy-Rae took a seat and denied Fianna Fáil the chance of taking a second seat in the constituency.

After the election, the Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats prospective government was still short of an overall majority. Healy-Rae was one of four Independent TDs (the others were Harry Blaney, Tom Gildea and Mildred Fox) who supported the government throughout its five-year term. In return for this support he secured funding for projects in his constituency and chairmanship of the Environment committee. His policy approach could be defined as populist, primarily driven by his rural background and constituency, and he frequently demanded upgrades to public services such as schools and roads in his constituency as the price of his support for the government.

Healy-Rae contested the 2002 general election and although his seat looked in doubt at some stages of the campaign and he received only the fourth-highest number of first-preference votes, he was narrowly re-elected, winning the third seat.

Retirement

On 26 June 2008 Healy-Rae announced that he intended to retire at the next general election. His son Michael Healy-Rae was selected as a candidate by the Healy-Rae organisation on 28 October 2010,and was elected at the 2011 general election.

Death

Healy-Rae died on 5 December 2014 at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee after a long illness.