The right of local authorities to nominate candidates for the presidency, now much in the news, was little invoked in early elections for the office. However, in 1966, a redoubtable character called Eoin O’Mahony, known affectionately as “the Pope”, attempted to go this route to contest the re-election of the 83-year-old President Éamon de Valera.
A bearded bachelor with an itinerant lifestyle, who harnessed an encyclopaedic knowledge of people and their ancestry to fuel a remarkable affluence of conversation, the 61-year-old O'Mahony had achieved a public profile presenting a radio programme called Meet the Clans. It went out at lunchtime on Sundays. On it O'Mahony interviewed the famous or well-born of a chosen surname, adding his own sometimes idiosyncratic observations in a mellifluous Cork voice.
Born in the southern capital, he had been a prize-winning student at “Pres” in Cork and Clongowes before blossoming as a debater at the still unionist Trinity. In 1930, at the dinner after his inaugural address as auditor of its College Historical Society, he created a sensation toasting Ireland rather than the king. This, and an invitation he extended to Éamon de Valera to address the Cumann Gaelach, opened his way into Fianna Fáil as a member of Cork Corporation and an almost successful Dáil candidate in 1938.
At the Bar, O’Mahony was rewarded with State briefs but, ever ruled by his heart, he often sought leniency for those he was prosecuting. His practice evaporated when he broke with the Fianna Fáil government over their treatment of IRA prisoners. He campaigned post-war for the release of those held in British jails and defended Brendan Behan when he was charged there with failing to obey a deportation order.
Free spirit that he was, O’Mahony devoted the rest to his life to genealogy and good causes. He championed giving homes to orphaned German children, for which he was later honoured by the German government. He supported anti-partition candidates contesting British elections. He promoted the John Redmond commemoration in Wexford in 1956. He protested against the destruction of Dublin’s Georgian buildings. His was a uniquely inclusive appreciation of the different traditions of Irish life.
In 1966 he presented himself as a candidate who would raise the presidency above party politics and heal the divisions of the civil war. It was wrong, he said, that the president was a prisoner in the former Vice-Regal Lodge “which held 200 years of British rule memories”. He promised to live in each of the provinces for three months every year and to promote cultural life. Rather than hoard his salary as previous incumbents had allegedly done, he promised to spend every penny of it on the Irish people.
Fine Gael had proposed frontbencher Tom O’Higgins to oppose Dev. Its members on local authorities then ganged up with Fianna Fáil councillors to thwart O’Mahony. As a result, most local authorities refused even to receive him. Only 11 invited him to address them. This he did wearing a báinín jacket. North Tipperary alone endorsed him but then reversed its decision. Wicklow came within a vote of nominating him. His appeal to local authorities in Northern Ireland evoked no response.
Glad to have made his point, O’Mahony returned to a visiting lectureship in the University of South Illinois. He reappeared on the political scene later when proposed by sculptor Seamus Murphy as a candidate in a byelection in Cork opposing Ireland’s entry to the European Economic Community. “We are a happy independent people”, he said, “and want to run our little country in our own way.”
It was a surprising stance as few Irishmen of his time knew Europe so well or were as conscious of Ireland’s past connections there.
In 1967 he attended the commemoration in Belgium of the Irish Party MP Willie Redmond, which was boycotted by the Irish government. He sang the Soldiers Song and recited the Our Father and Hail Mary in Irish.
Commemoration of the worthies of the Irish past was a lifelong passion with O’Mahony.
When he died suddenly in 1970 his friends were determined that he himself should not be forgotten. A bursary was established to which over 500 persons subscribed. It funds research on the activities of the Irish abroad, especially the Wild Geese, one of his enthusiasms.
The Royal Irish Academy undertook to administer it and the annual presentations of awards were occasions for recalling him and honouring his memory. The RIA has now decided to wind up the bursary by distributing the €21,000 still in the fund.
I cannot help feeling a sharp pang of regret that Eoin O’Mahony, who devoted so much time and energy to the commemoration of others, and who tried to elevate the presidency above party politics, will no longer receive the commemoration that his admirers subscribed to ensure.