Ciarán P. Murphy (born 30 May 1940) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician who was a Teachta Dála (TD) for Wicklow from 1973 to 1982. A secondary school teacher before entering politics, Murphy was elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt, at the 1973 general election. He defeated the sitting TD Paudge Brennan, who had left Fianna Fáil over the

Arms Crisis The Arms Crisis was a political scandal in the Republic of Ireland in 1970 in which Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney were dismissed as cabinet ministers for alleged involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle arms to the Irish Republican Army in North ...

and was standing as a candidate for the short-lived breakaway party Aontacht Éireann. Murphy was re-elected at the next three general elections, before losing his seat at the November 1982 general election to Paudge Brennan, who had rejoined Fianna Fáil. In October 1982, Murphy had been one of the "

Gang of 22 The Gang of 22 was a group of Fianna Fáil TDs (members of parliament) who were opposed to the leadership of Charles Haughey in the early 1980s. The very evident division within the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party left a deep split in the o ...

" Fianna Fáil TDs who had voted in favour of a

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

in the Taoiseach Charles Haughey's leadership of the party. The motion had been tabled by Kildare TD Charlie McCreevy, but one of its main backers was Desmond O'Malley. O'Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 1985 and founded a new political party, the Progressive Democrats (PDs). Murphy, who was no longer a member of the Dáil, joined the PDs and stood as a Progressive Democrat candidate in Wicklow at the 1989 general election. He was unsuccessful, and did not stand again.

References

Local councillors in County Wicklow Fianna Fáil TDs Progressive Democrats politicians 1940 births Living people Members of the 20th Dáil Members of the 21st Dáil Members of the 22nd Dáil Members of the 23rd Dáil Irish schoolteachers {{TeachtaDála-stub