Joe Doyle:JOE DOYLE, who has died aged 73, was a former Fine Gael TD, senator and lord mayor of Dublin.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, paying tribute to an “outstanding public representative”, this week said: “He epitomised all that was good in Irish politics and his contribution to parliamentary debate was both highly valued and in keeping with the realities of the day.”
Doyle served two terms as TD for Dublin South East, from 1982 to 1987 and from 1989 to 1992. Dáil committees he served on included public expenditure and crime and vandalism. He was twice a member of Seanad Éireann, from 1987 to 1989 and again from 1997 to 2002.
In 1983 he was one of eight Fine Gael TDs to defy the party whip by voting against the party’s wording for the abortion referendum, declaring his support for the Fianna Fáil government’s amendment.
But he surprised many observers in 1985 when he voted for the liberalisation of family planning legislation, arguing that as a legislator his duty was to trust citizens to make informed decisions. He received many letters and phone calls condemning his stance.
Prior to the 1986 divorce referendum, he appealed for generosity from those who would never want a divorce towards those who had not been so lucky, because “life is difficult and stubborn and does not work out as people planned”.
After his first term as a TD, he lost his seat in 1987 to Progressive Democrat Michael McDowell, but regained it as the result of a shrewd vote management strategy by his running mate, former taoiseach and party leader, Garret FitzGerald.
He lost the seat in 1992 when running mate Frances Fitzgerald won the only Fine Gael seat, and he again failed to be elected in 1997.
Born in Dublin in 1936, Joe Doyle was the son of John Doyle and his wife Molly (née O’Brien). John Doyle was a tram conductor with the Dublin United Tramway company, the family home one of the small artisan cottages built by the company for its employees just behind the tram sheds in Simmonscourt terrace where the family still live to this day.
Joe Doyle attended Milltown Boys’ School and continued his education at Westland Row CBS.
He described himself as a “middle-ranking scholar, never at the top, but never at the bottom”. He completed the Leaving Certificate in 1954 and joined the Dublin Corporation rates department.
Shortly afterwards he accepted an invitation to become parish clerk and sacristan at the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook.
In 1955 he was on hand to step in as a last-minute best man for author and playwright Brendan Behan at his marriage to painter Beatrice Salkeld.
His interest in politics began early. At the age of nine he pestered a local Fine Gael worker to let him hand out leaflets on election-day and he retained vivid memories of the bonfires in Donnybrook on the welcoming home of their new taoiseach, John A Costello.
He was first elected to Dublin City Council in 1979, and served on the housing and planning and development committees. Defeated in the election for lord mayor in 1990, he was successful in 1998 and described his election as the “most moving moment” of his life.
The columnist Drapier in this newspaper wrote: “Ultimately, it was his decency which got him the cross-party support to win.”
Launching a programme to promote racial integration in 1999, he condemned racist leaflets distributed in Dublin’s south inner city and described racism as “un-Christian”.
He stood down as a public representative in 2004. Explaining his party affiliation, he wrote in 1999: “I had a great interest in history and, as a young person reading about the Treaty, believed that Fine Gael had taken the honourable course.”
He held a diploma in public administration, having attended evening classes at University College Dublin.
He was a member of the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage for over 50 years, for which he was awarded a medal by the diocese.
A board member of the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook, he also was director of Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Association, and a member of both Teenage Care and Cara.
He took a keen interest in cricket, and was delighted to welcome Brian Lara and the West Indies team to the Mansion House on the occasion of the one-day World Cup competition in 1999.
He is survived by his wife Peggy, daughter Róisín and sons David and Michael.
Joe Doyle: born June 27th, 1936; died August 8th, 2009