Michael Ferris was cast in the mould of the traditional rural Labour TD, believing that long-winded debates on ideology were no substitute for pragmatic political action to help the less privileged. But his political horizons stretched beyond his Tipperary South constituency, which he carefully nursed. He also took a keen interest in international affairs.
Aged 68 years, he died on March 20th, in Lisbon where he was attending an EU meeting. An affable personality, and a willingness to help younger colleagues, irrespective of party preference, made him popular with all shades of political opinion in Leinster House. Despite the affability, however, he was, when required, a tough, streetwise political fighter, in the Oireachtas, and a survivor, sometimes against formidable odds, in his constituency.
He was born in Bansha, Co Tipperary, in November, 1931, into a family with a Labour tradition. His grandfather, Patrick Ferris, had served as a Labour councillor for the Tipperary Area Board of Guardians. Educated at the local national school and the CBS and technical school in Tipperary town, the young Michael Ferris's first community involvement was with his parish priest, Canon John M. Hayes, who founded Muintir na Tire to develop rural Ireland. He would later say that Canon Hayes was the person who most influenced him.
He worked as secretary to a veterinary practice until he became a full-time politician in 1981. By then, he was a member of the Seanad, having first won a seat in a by-election in 1975. He had begun his career in representative politics, when he was elected to Tipperary (South Riding) County Council in 1967, where he later served two periods as chairman. He was elected to Tipperary Urban District Council in 1985.
He seemed destined to remain in the Seanad, until Tipperary South's long-serving Labour TD, Sean Treacy, left the party in the 1980s to become an Independent. Treacy became Ceann Comhairle in 1987, a position he held until his retirement from politics a decade later. With Treacy automatically returned to the Dail, Michael Ferris took the Labour seat in 1989 and held it in successive elections.
By the time he became a TD, he was a veteran of the bitter infighting which characterised Labour for long periods in the 1970s and 1980s. As the party's vice-chairman from 1979 to 1986, he supported the leadership of the day, and argued for Labour's involvement in coalition to secure the implementation of its policies.
In the summer of 1981, as the then leader, Michael O'Leary, negotiated a coalition deal with Fine Gael, Michael Ferris issued a strongly-worded statement advising those already opposed to it to wait for the publication of a programme for government before making up their minds. Reflecting the growing frustration of rural Labour with the failure of the vocal Dublin organisation to deliver more Dail seats, he said: "I believe that the early resurgence of Labour in Dublin, which we all confidently expect, will derive as much from reformed organisational methods as from the pursuit of one or other form of electoral strategy."
Although passed over for ministerial promotion, when Labour entered government with Fianna Fail in 1992, he remained a staunch party loyalist and an influential backbench deputy. In June, 1993, he was embroiled in controversy when the then Progressive Democrats spokesman on enterprise and employment, Martin Cullen, accused him of a premature announcement which cost Clonmel a 1,200-job industry. Michael Ferris and Labour party sources strongly rejected the allegation.
While part of a parliamentary group monitoring the South African elections in May, 1994, he suffered a heart attack, and underwent a quadruple by-pass operation in Cape Town. He made a good recovery and resumed his busy political life. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Labour's assistant whip.
Michael Ferris was a daily Mass-goer. His interests included music and making honey, a pot of which he recently gave to a Leinster House colleague.
Married twice, his first wife was Josephine Tobin, with whom he had four sons and a daughter. She died in 1978, and he later married Ellen Kiely in a ceremony in St Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel. They had a daughter.
Michael Ferris is survived by his wife, Ellen (nee Kiely), their daughter Catherine; and from his first marriage, sons, Michael, Thomas, Bernard, Gerard, and daughter, Grainne; mother, Mary and sister, Josephine.
Michael Ferris: born 1931; died March, 2000.