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Home , Brendan Corish, Brendan Halligan, Frank Cluskey

{1936 – 2020} Brendan Halligan who has died was a Labour icon through and through and a great friend of the Irish Labour History Society (ILHS). Born in 1936 and educated at UCD, where he qualified with a Masters in Economics in 1964 and after a short time working in the Public Service he was appointed as General Secretary of the in 1967 a position he held until 1980. He worked with two Party Leaders , and , and during the Coalition Government of 1983-1987 was one of the 's () nominees to the Senate. He became a TD in 1976 winning a by-election in South West, and replaced Frank Cluskey as a MEP between 1983 and 1984 where he specialised in economic affairs and energy policy.

Following his stepping down as General Secretary and leaving the Labour Party he was appointed Chair of the Semi-State peat body Bord na Mona (BnM) in 1985 for 10 years and subsequently chaired the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland(SEAI) charged with promoting the production and use of sustainable energy in Ireland and reducing greenhouse gas emissions for 7 years.

He was involved in the expansion of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) as a Director and President and held an adjunct Professorship of European Integration at the University of Limerick (UL). Laterally he had become well known for his work as founder (1990) and director of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) a body that published and held many discourses on items of European and Global interest, with significantly talented and varied policy views.

During my predecessor, as President of the Society, Brendan Byrne's time he contributed significantly to the daylong seminar along with the Corish family in the bequest of Corish family papers to the ILHS, in Beggars Bush, which he captured in a later publication by Scathan Publications. In 2018 he authored the paper 'A Noble Adventure -The New Republic speech in Retrospect' celebrating the centenary of Corish's birth in in 1918,(Remembering Brendan Corish 1918-1990) which was co-hosted by the ILHS, Library ,Wexford Trades Council and the Wexford Branch of the Labour Party and then party leader T.D..

Brendan Halligan, was an extremely hard worker, and imbued in the political tradition of the Labour Party, but did not suffer fools gladly and was prolific in his writings and research for the betterment of Irish and European society, economy, and lifestyle, however when all was said and done politics was his life. Disappointed at the direction of the party latterly he never gave up hope that with new ideas, fresh blood, and a return to basics the 'New Republic' challenge could after all be delivered.

Recently he had been involved with The ILHS and Umiskin Press, writing chapters in the following publications: Cluskey the Conscience of Labour Umiskin Press 2015 (Cluskey: The Larkinite Leader) and Left Lives in 20th Century Ireland, Volume 2, ('A Noble Adventure' -The New Republic Speech in Retrospect) Umiskin Press 2019 in an elongated chapter alongside his lifelong friends Tony Brown and Niall Green Three Reflections on Brendan Corish.

Brendan Halligan will be remembered for his political service to the modern Irish state and to the party he served and is embodied in two snippets from his recent writings.

• On Corish: "We who worked with Brendan Corish were privileged to have shared in the noble adventure he launched in Liberty Hall and his speech on 'The New Republic' ".

• On Cluskey: "In his capacity as leader, he will go down as the one who effected the transition from Corish, the moderniser, to Spring the most modern of men. That was one half of his legacy. The other was to guard the party's soul and bequeath it intact to the following generations. In this he succeeded because of his authenticity as a representative of Labour, of its roots, its role and convictions. He was the personification of its raison d'etre. He was the Larkinite who had become Leader, the first to do so and, so far, the last. Dr. Jack McGinley, President ILHS.