Born: August 9th, 1944
Died: April 6th 2026
Seán Barrett who has died, had a long and varied political life. He left politics in 2002 after a successful career for more than 20 years as a TD and a minister only to return five years later and go on to become ceann comhairle of Dáil Éireann, one of the most prestigious constitutional offices in the State.
The son of a postman from the picturesque village of Dalkey, in south Dublin, Barrett never forgot his roots despite his political achievements and his success in business. He built a strong political operation in Dalkey and the surrounding areas of Killiney, Cabinteely and Shankill that made him a formidable vote getter. As a TD his dogged approach on behalf of constituents to rectifying injustices perpetrated by the State earned him wide respect from voters.
In the 1980s he spearheaded a Fine Gael team that regularly won three out of five seats in the Dún Laoghaire constituency, making a vital contribution to the efforts of Garret FitzGerald to form two governments in coalition with the Labour Party during that decade.
Considering that Labour TD Barry Desmond also held his seat it meant that the government held four of the five seats in Dún Laoghaire during the tumultuous politics of the early 1980s.
RM Block
It was also a decade of business achievement. In 1980 along with two colleagues he formed an insurance brokerage, Barrett, Hegarty and Moloney, and in 1987 he set up Seán Barrett Bloodstock Insurances. A horse racing fan from his early days, he developed important contacts in the industry through his wife Sheila Hyde, whose family were prominent in racing circles.
The couple recently celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary. It was appropriate that shortly before he died on Easter Monday he watched that day’s opening race at the Fairyhouse festival.
[ Former ceann comhairle and Fine Gael minister Seán Barrett dies aged 81Opens in new window ]
Seán Barrett was born in 1944. His parents Jack and Jane lived in the working-class end of Dalkey where Seán attended the local national school before going on to the Christian Brothers schools in Dún Laoghaire and Monkstown. After leaving school he got a job in the insurance industry where he learned the business.
He was interested in politics from an early age but became involved in Fine Gael through a chance encounter. A keen golfer, he was having an animated discussion with friends in Bray golf club during the 1970 arms crisis which was overheard by the chair of the Cabinteely branch of Fine Gael, Tom Slevin, who was impressed by his opinions and his ability to articulate them.
Slevin invited Barrett to join Fine Gael and the offer was accepted. He was put forward by the Cabinteely branch at a convention to select candidates for the 1974 local elections. He won the nomination and was elected to Dublin County Council. He was an active councillor and quickly developed an ambition to become a TD.
There was no opening on the Fine Gael ticket in Dún Laoghaire for the 1977 election but he was selected to run in the adjacent Dublin County South constituency along with long standing TD, John Kelly. While he did not win a seat he performed creditably in a bad election for Fine Gael and positioned himself to lead the party ticket in the expanded five-seat Dún Laoghaire constituency in 1981.
He was comfortably elected in 1981 and retained his seat at every election he contested after that date. He didn’t have long to wait for promotion and was appointed minister of state at the Department of the Taoiseach and government chief whip in Garret FitzGerald’s second government which took office at the end of 1982.
He proved a capable and astute chief whip at a time when the government was under pressure on a range of fronts. He had to contend with internal revolts from conservative TDs like Alice Glenn and Oliver Flanagan on the abortion and divorce referendums and the reform of the law on contraception.
Barrett was not among the coterie of TDs who were vocal in support of FitzGerald’s constitutional crusade. He represented the middle ground in the party who were loyal to the leader but wary of moving too quickly on the liberal agenda. He was close to John Boland and Fergus O’Brien who had similar views.
After Fine Gael lost office in 1987 he was appointed to the party front bench by the new leader, Alan Dukes, and retained a prominent position when John Bruton took the helm. He was a staunch supporter of Bruton during an attempted heave against the leader in 1994.
He was disappointed not to be made a senior minister when Bruton became taoiseach at the end of 1994 but was reappointed as government chief whip. He finally won promotion to the cabinet in 1995 as minister for defence after the resignation of Hugh Coveney and enjoyed his period at the cabinet table.
Back in opposition after 1997, he became discontented with politics, particularly in the light of the repeated attempts to remove Bruton as leader. In 1999 he announced that he would not be standing in the next election and was not a candidate in 2002. It was fortuitous timing as that election was a disaster for Fine Gael which didn’t win a single seat in Dún Laoghaire and only retained three seats in the Dublin region.
When Enda Kenny became party leader after that electoral debacle he persuaded Barrett, an old friend and ally, to come back to politics. Barrett agreed to stand at the subsequent election and was comfortably elected in 2007. He was back on the Fine Gael front bench as spokesman on foreign affairs in 2010 after the failed attempt to depose Kenny.
He had hopes of a senior cabinet position in the Kenny government and was disappointed to be left out. However, he was offered the position of ceann comhairle and quickly settled into the difficult role of controlling an unruly Dáil chamber. He was returned automatically in 2016 and did not contest the 2020 election.
He is survived by his wife Sheila and five children, Sarah, Jaci, Lynda, John and Rob, and 17 grandchildren.
