Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Paddy Hogan was a major player in the trade union movement on a national level and his passion for workers’ rights meant that he stayed to fight for workers’ rights throughout the bitter Civil War in which he did not partake. During the Civil War there was a blockade of Ennis and Hogan reacted by appropriating supplies for distribution among the labourers of the town who could not acquire food elsewhere. Of course, caught up in the demagoguery of the Technical Group, Deputy Higgins probably only remembers him as the Ceann Comhairle who met President John F. Kennedy at Shannon Airport. No doubt he would probably criticise him for having greeted President Kennedy because, regardless of President Kennedy's achievements for the poor that he and the Democratic Party represented in the United States, he was not perfect. I am sure many in the Technical Group would rather have seen Pol Pot arrive in Shannon Airport than President Kenney. That is Pot, the Cambodian dictator, as opposed to any contraband substance. That is the reality of the colourful group that proposed tonight’s motion.

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