Proinsias De Rossa (born 15 May 1940) is a former Irish
Labour Party politician who served as
Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997,
Leader of Democratic Left from 1992 to 1999 and
Leader of the Workers' Party from 1988 to 1992. He served as
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
(MEP) for the
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
constituency from 1989 to 1992 and 1999 to 2012. He was a
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...
(TD) for the
Dublin North-West constituency from 1989 to 2002.
Early life and political activity
Born as Francis Ross in 1940 in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, he was educated at Marlborough Street National School and
Dublin Institute of Technology
Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT, ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath) was a major third-level institution in Dublin, Ireland. On 1 January 2019 DIT was dissolved and its functions were transferred to the Technological Un ...
. He joined
Fianna Éireann
Na Fianna Éireann (The Fianna of Ireland), known as the Fianna, is an Irish nationalist youth organisation founded by Constance Markievicz in 1909, with later help from Bulmer Hobson. Fianna members were involved in setting up the Irish Volun ...
at age 12.
Soon after his sixteenth birthday, in May 1956, he joined the
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...
(IRA), and was politically active in
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
from an early age. During the
IRA Border Campaign, he was arrested while training other IRA members in
Glencree
Glencree ( ga, Gleann Crí from the older Gleann Criothach, which translates as Valley of the Shaking Bog) is a valley in the Wicklow Mountains in eastern Ireland. It is the third-closest valley in the mountains to Dublin city, the first being ...
in May 1957. He served seven months in
Mountjoy Prison
Mountjoy Prison ( ga, Príosún Mhuinseo), founded as Mountjoy Gaol and nicknamed ''The Joy'', is a medium security men's prison located in Phibsborough in the centre of Dublin, Ireland.
The current prison Governor is Edward Mullins.
History
...
and was then interned at the
Curragh Camp
The Curragh Camp ( ga, Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel.
History
Longstanding ...
.
He worked in his family's fruit and vegetable shop, and later was employed as a postman and an encyclopaedia salesman.
Political activities and career
He took the Official Sinn Féin side in the 1970 split. In 1977, he contested his first
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
for the party, which that year was renamed Sinn Féin – The Workers' Party (in 1982 the name changed again to the
Workers' Party).
He was successful on his third attempt, and was elected at the
February 1982 general election as a Sinn Féin – The Workers' Party
TD for the
Dublin North-West constituency. He retained his seat until the
2002 general election when he stood down in order to devote more time to his work in the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
.
In 1988, De Rossa succeeded
Tomás Mac Giolla
Tomás Mac Giolla (; born Thomas Gill; 25 January 1924 – 4 February 2010) was an Irish Workers' Party politician who served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1993 to 1994, Leader of the Workers' Party from 1962 to 1988 and President of Sinn Féin ...
as president of the Workers' Party. The party had been growing steadily in the 1980s, and had its best-ever electoral performance in the
general
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
and
European elections held in 1989. The party won 7 Dáil seats with 5% of the vote. De Rossa himself was elected to the European Parliament for the
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
constituency, where he topped the poll and the party almost succeeded in replacing
Fine Gael
Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil ...
as the capital's second-largest party. He sat as a member of the
Group for the European United Left. However, the campaign resulted in a serious build-up of financial debt by the Workers' Party, which threatened to greatly inhibit the party's ability to ensure it would hold on to its gains.
Long-standing tensions within the Workers' Party, pitting reformers, including most of the party's TDs, against hard-liners centred on former general secretary
Seán Garland
Seán Garland (7 March 1934 – 13 December 2018) was the President of the Workers' Party in Ireland from 1977 to 1999.
Early life
Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954 ...
, came to a head in 1992. Disagreements on policy issues were exacerbated by the desire of the reformers to ditch the
democratic centralist
Democratic centralism is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the political party. It is mainly associated with Leninism, wherein the party's political vanguard of professional revol ...
nature of the party structures, and to remove any remaining questions about alleged party links with the
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (OIRA; ) was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "workers' republic" encompassing all of Ireland. It emerged ...
, a topic which had been the subject of persistent and embarrassing media coverage. De Rossa called a Special
Ardfheis
or ''ardfheis'' ( , ; "high assembly"; plural ''ardfheiseanna'') is the name used by many Irish political parties for their annual party conference. The term was first used by Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language cultural organisation, for i ...
(party conference) to debate changes to the constitution. The motion failed to get the required two-thirds majority, and subsequently De Rossa led the majority of the parliamentary group and councillors out of a meeting of the party's Central Executive Committee the following Saturday at Wynn's Hotel, splitting the party.
De Rossa and the other former Workers' Party members then established a new political party, provisionally called New Agenda. At its founding conference in March 1992, it was named
Democratic Left and De Rossa was elected party leader. Later that year he resigned his European Parliament seat, where he was succeeded by Democratic Left general secretary
Des Geraghty
Desmond Geraghty (born 27 October 1943) is a former Irish politician and trade union leader. He was president of SIPTU from 1999 to 2004. He stood unsuccessfully at the 1984 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency as a Workers ...
.
Following the collapse of the
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christian- ...
–
Labour Party coalition government in 1994, Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left negotiated a government programme for the remaining life of the 27th Dáil, which became known as the
Rainbow Coalition. De Rossa became
Minister for Social Welfare. He initiated Ireland's first national anti-poverty strategy, a commission on the family, and a commission to examine national pension policy.
The
1997 general election resulted in the defeat of the outgoing coalition. At this point, Democratic Left had accumulated a very significant financial debt. In light of the co-operation achieved in practically all policy areas during the Rainbow Coalition, the party decided to merge with the Labour Party. Labour leader
Ruairi Quinn
Ruairi Quinn (born 2 April 1946) is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Education and Skills from 2011 to 2014, Leader of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2002, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1989 to 1997, ...
became leader of the unified party; De Rossa took up the symbolic post of party president, which he held until 2002.
In 1999, De Rossa was elected again at the
European Parliament election
Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's.
Unti ...
for the Dublin constituency, sitting on this occasion with the
Group of the Party of European Socialists. De Rossa did not contest his
Dáil seat at the
2002 general election.
He was re-elected at the
2004 European Parliament election. As a member of the European Parliament, De Rossa took a strong pro-integration approach from a distinctly
social democratic perspective, as well as a keen interest in foreign policy and social policy.
De Rossa was a member of the
European Convention Several bodies or treaties are known as European Convention.
Bodies of the European Union
* European Convention (1999–2000) which drafted the:
** ''Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union'' (2000 / 2009)
* Convention on the Future of ...
which produced the July 2003 draft
European constitution
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE; commonly referred to as the European Constitution or as the Constitutional Treaty) was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European U ...
. De Rossa was chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with the
Palestinian Legislative Council. He was a member of the
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) is a committee of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of employment and social policy, including labour rights, social security, inclusion, free movement for workers and pensio ...
and the Conference of Delegation Chairs, and a substitute member of the
Committee on Development The Committee on Development (Commission du développement, DEVE) is a committee of the European Parliament responsible for promoting, implementing and monitoring the development and cooperation policy of the European Union, notably talks with deve ...
and the delegation to the
Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (PAUM), previously known as the ''Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly'' (''EMPA''), established in Naples on 3 December 2003 by decision of the Ministerial Conference of the Eu ...
. On 16 January 2012, he announced his decision to resign as an MEP, and stepped down on 1 February.
Libel action
During De Rossa's period as leader of Democratic Left, Irish journalist
Eamon Dunphy
Eamon Martin Dunphy (born 3 August 1945) is an Irish media personality, journalist, broadcaster, author, sports pundit and former professional footballer. He grew up playing football for several youth teams including Stella Maris. Since retirin ...
, writing in the ''
Sunday Independent'' newspaper, published an article alleging that De Rossa was aware, while a member of the Workers' Party, of the Official IRA's alleged illegal activities, including bank robberies and forgery. De Rossa sued the newspaper for
libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
and was awarded IR£300,000.
Sources
*''The Politics of Illusion: A Political History of the IRA'', Henry Patterson,
*''The Workers' Party in Dáil Éireann: The First Ten Years'', The Workers' Party, 1991
*''Patterns of Betrayal: The Flight From Socialism'', The Workers' Party, 1992
References
External links
Proinsias De Rossa's page on the Labour Party website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Rossa, Proinsias
1940 births
Living people
Alumni of Dublin Institute of Technology
Democratic Left (Ireland) TDs
Irish republicans interned without trial
Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members
Labour Party (Ireland) MEPs
Labour Party (Ireland) TDs
Local councillors in Dublin (city)
Members of the 23rd Dáil
Members of the 24th Dáil
Members of the 25th Dáil
Members of the 26th Dáil
Members of the 27th Dáil
Members of the 28th Dáil
MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 1989–1994
MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 1999–2004
MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 2004–2009
MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 2009–2014
Ministers for Social Affairs (Ireland)
Workers' Party of Ireland TDs