Desmond O'Malley

At age 31, O'Malley was the youngest Minister for Justice since Kevin O'Higgins who had presided over the tumultuous post-revolutionary period in Ireland in the 1920s following the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

It has also been alleged that O'Malley had later become aware of IRA Chief of Staff Seán Mac Stíofáin's status as a 'misinformer', who whilst on the Gárda payroll fed misinformation to the Gárda Special Branch intelligence directorate known as C3.

Desmond Joseph O'Malley (2 February 1939 – 21 July 2021) was an Irish politician who served as Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1977 to 1981 and 1989 to 1992, Leader of the Progressive Democrats from 1985 to 1993, Minister for Trade, Commerce and Tourism from March 1982 to October 1982, Minister for Justice from 1970 to 1973 and Government Chief Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence from 1969 to 1970.

O'Malley was born in Limerick in 1939.

His family had long been involved in politics: His maternal grandfather, Denis O'Donovan, was killed during the War of Independence by the Black and Tans, two of his uncles and his father held the office of Mayor of Limerick, and his uncle Donogh O'Malley was a Minister for Education.

O'Malley was educated at the Jesuit Crescent College and at University College Dublin, from which he graduated with a degree in law in 1962.

He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick East constituency from 1968 to 2002.

In 1968, his uncle and sitting TD Donogh O'Malley died suddenly.

Initially, Donogh's widow Hilda was asked by Fianna Fáil to stand in the coming by-election to try and retain the seat for the party.

However, as Hilda was still in shock because of her husband's sudden death she declined and instead, after a canvass of many O'Malleys, Desmond O'Malley was selected and he stood in the subsequent by-election to fill the vacant seat.

Desmond was successful and was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Limerick East constituency.

At the time it was believed that this by-election victory by just 900 votes was partly due to Neil Blaney and his "Donegal Mafia".

Blaney would subsequently deeply regret aiding O'Malley in his election as he always felt that Des was in the wrong party.

The relationship between Desmond and Hilda was strained following Desmond's victory after Hilda had a change of heart about entering politics.

She requested that Desmond stand aside in the 1969 Irish general election in favour of her becoming the main Fianna Fáil candidate, but Desmond refused.

Both Desmond and Hilda stood in Limerick East in that 1969 Election, with Desmond for Fianna Fáil and Hilda as an Independent.

Desmond came third while Hilda finished fifth in the four-seat constituency.

Desmond was elected while Hilda just missed out.

The "O'Malley vs O'Malley" dynamic of what was a very acrimonious contest drew enormous interest and discussion, to the point of attracting international headlines.

After the 1969 general election, O'Malley was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, and also Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Jim Gibbons.

A prominent Fianna Fáil member and government minister in the 1970s and 1980s, O'Malley went on to found the Progressive Democrats and served as the party's first leader from 1985 until 1993.

O'Malley had a central role in the prosecutions that arose from the Arms Crisis of 1970, the case against the accused government ministers Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney.

The case was subsequently dismissed in the Supreme Court, where both ministers were acquitted.

It has been alleged by numerous scholars that O'Malley was aware of Taoiseach Jack Lynch's lawful efforts to procure arms for northern Nationalists, to be kept under lock and key at a secure location at a monastery in County Cavan, and the training of young men, hand-picked by the Citizens' Defence Committees to be instructed in their use by the Irish Defence Forces.

It has been alleged that O'Malley was aware of a ministerial memo that unambiguously stated:

"The Taoiseach and other Ministers have met delegations from the North. At these meetings urgent demands were made for respirators, weapons and ammunition the provision of which the Government agreed. Accordingly truckloads of these items will be put at readiness so that they may be available in a matter of hours"

A transport of army trucks with 500 rifles, 80,000 rounds of ammunition and respirators was indeed sent to the North but did not cross the border, in April 1970 (following orders Defence Minister Gibbons issued in February of that year), instead the trucks were parked at Aitken barracks in Dundalk.

Owing to a lack of sufficent space, all but 150 rifles were returned south immediately, and the remainder in May 1970, ostensibly due to a fear the barracks could be raided by the IRA.

As O'Malley was a junior minister in the Dept. of Defence, it is highly unlikely that he was not aware of the relevant handwritten memo suggesting their removal from Aitken Barracks.

This memo, as with the one above, was not admitted as evidence at the Arms Trial, perhaps because it might have aroused suspicion as to the Irish Department of Defence's intentions in moving so many weapons and for what purpose.

It has been suggested that the arms were to be temporarily stored there whilst Captain James Kelly procured the intended weapons from Germany, under instruction from the Defence Minister, Jim Gibbons and the Army Director of Intelligence, Colonel Michael Hefferon.

"Following intelligence reports of the possibility of a raid by a subversive organisation in Dundalk military barracks, the balance of 150 rifles and 80,000 rounds of ammunition stored in Dundalk, were returned to stores in Dublin on Fri 1 May 1970."

In 1970, O'Malley succeeded Mícheál Ó Móráin as Minister for Justice.

O’Malley knew that there was an informer because he mentions this fact in his memoirs – where he reveals that the Garda received a “tip-off” from an informer about the arms importation attempt that sparked the Arms Crisis of 1970.

The informer was Seán Mac Stíofáin, who did so to discredit the Jack Lynch government and prevent the development of a potential rival military organisation - the Citizens' Defence Committees.

Mac Stíofáin had sourced superior weapons independently from the United States and wished to eliminate the possibility of these weapons falling into the hands of his arch rival, Cathal Goulding, the leader of the Marxist rump faction, the Official IRA, whom the media alleged the weapons were destined for.

"Mac STIOPHAIN (sic) had until July 1972 conducted a brilliant masquerade as a Garda informant and been well paid to boot. His status would in all probability have continued but for documents found in the home of a retired Irish/American and a former Clann na Gael Treasurer, James Conaty, Drumshirk, Stradone. These documents were such that they were brought to the Minister for Justice for his personal perusal. That MacStíofáin should have been in receipt of State funds and regarded as an Informant must, to any sane objective person, appear the height of improbability but it is a fact. MacStíofáin was recruited in good faith in approximately 1961 but the justification of his later role must surely bewilder men of goodwill. You know how the PROVOS were formed, how SAOR EIRE acted as their Financial agents in the Republic so as not to incur the disapproval of the State against the Provos and until disenchantment about MacStíofáin occurred in July 1972 his immunity was at a reasonable level."

He retired from politics at the 2002 general election.

He was married to Pat McAleer, who predeceased him in 2017.

They had six children, 4 daughters and two sons, including Fiona O'Malley.