Pádraig Faulkner
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Pádraig Faulkner (born 12 March 1918) is a former senior Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was first elected in 1957 as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth, serving until 1987. Faulkner also served as Minister for Lands, Minister for the Gaeltacht, Minister for Posts & Telegraphs, Minister for Transport & Power, Minister for Defence and Ceann Comhairle.
Pádraig Faulkner was born in Dundalk, County Louth in 1918. He was educated at Dundalk CBS and St. Patrick's, Drumcondra, where he qualified as a national school teacher. Faulkner grew up in a strongly Fine Gael family in Dunleer in South Louth, however, he switched to the more republican Fianna Fáil while he lived with a family when he was at secondary school in Dundalk. He joined Fianna Fáil in his youth and for a time was a member of Louth County Council. Faulkner unsuccessfully contested the Louth by-election in 1954, and at the 1957 general election he was finally elected to Dáil Éireann.
In 1965 Faulkner was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Gaeltacht by the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass. He was elevated to the Cabinet by the new Taoiseach, Jack Lynch in 1968 and served in every Fianna Fáil led government until 1980. During the Arms Crisis he was a Lynch loyalist. He was one of a number of senior TDs who organised the assembly of TDs and Senators in Dublin Airport to welcome Lynch home from the United States after the defendants had been found not guilty at the Arms Trial. Nine years later in 1979, one of those defendants, Charles Haughey, was elected Taoiseach. Faulkner was retained in the cabinet until 1980 when he was elected Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann.
Following this appointment he retired to the backbenches before retiring completely from politics at the 1987 general election. In a Dáil career that spanned 30 years his most notable achievements include the introduction of the legislation to establish two commercial semi-State companies, An Post and Telecom Éireann. Faulkner was subsequently appointed to the Council of State by President Mary Robinson in 1990.
