Stephen Coughlan

Irish Labour Party politician

Stephen Coughlan (26 December 1910 – 20 December 1994) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served for sixteen years as Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick East constituency. During the 1930s and 40s he was a member of the Irish Republican Army but in the post World War 2 period he moved into politics, first with the Republican Clann na Poblachta party and then later with the Labour Party. After becoming extremely politically powerful in his home of Limerick City, Coughlan was criticised as being an extremely parochial politician who jealously guarded his power base against any challenger, even those in his own party, which resulted in a number of local splits and rivalries that ultimately corroded his support. Politically and socially conservative, Coughlan was frequently at odds with the rest of the Labour party, while his "colourful" behaviour often drew national attention.

Coughlan was born in Limerick City, to a father Coughlan described as highly religious and to a mother Coughlan recalled as being a staunch Irish Republican. Coughlan educated at the local Presentation Sisters’ school before later boarding at Blackrock College, Dublin. He moved to Tralee in County Kerry in 1928 to become an insurance clerk. It was while Coughlan was in Tralee that he was recruited in the Irish Republican Army, with whom he remained a member until 1945. Coughlan claimed that during his time in the IRA he was involved in an unsuccessful assassination attempt upon Eoin O'Duffy, leader of the Blueshirts, with whom the IRA was engaged in a bitter feud with around 1933. It is also claimed that one of Coughlan's final acts in the IRA was an unsuccessful attempt to prevent O'Duffy and his Irish Brigade departing for the Spanish Civil War by ship from Limerick. In doing so Coughlan beat out former Clann party member, veteran campaigner and stalwart of Limerick politics Ted Russell. As a new member of Labour, Coughlan joined an existing rural republican wing of the party that included the likes of Dan Spring, Sean Treacy and Thomas Kyne. Over the years when those issues would come up in the Dáil, Coughlan would find himself conspicuously absent when it came time to vote in order to avoid losing the party whip.

In 1969 Coughlan was still a TD when he became Mayor of Limerick (head of the Corporation) for a second time ("Dual mandate" in Ireland was not abolished until 2003), and it was this period that was marked by some of the most high profile controversies of Coughlan's career.

By 1969, the Labour party was experiencing a major upswing in the number of members interested in socialism as the political trend of the New Left swept across western countries. Indeed, Labour party leader Brendan Corish announced the party's slogan for that year's general election would be "The seventies will be socialist!". This attracted a number of "intellectuals" to stand for the party as candidates, such as Justin Keating, Conor Cruise O'Brien, David Thornley and Noël Browne. Coughlan was not happy with the new direction of the party nor these candidates. At this time Coughlan had developed a new relationship with the editor of the main local newspaper, the Limerick Leader. Using this connection, Coughlan managed to have an "anonymous" leader published on the front page of the Limerick Leader on election day 1969 in which the author lamented the new direction of the Labour party as well as its new batch of candidates, but still implored the readers to vote for Coughlan. Coughlan took a similar line at first; in December 1969 he declared he would not meet with the South African team, but stated that he feared "revolutionary communist groups" would use the boycott as an excuse to "stir up trouble". He also said that in relation to the boycott, some of his colleagues in Labour had "gone haywire". When Barry Desmond TD announced that Labour as a party would back the boycott, Coughlan was furious and declared "the damn cheek for this jumped up overnight politician to come to us in Limerick to tell us how to act". Kemmy would go on to form the Limerick Socialist Organisation in 1972, which later became the Democratic Socialist Party, which became a powerful force in Limerick politics in its own right.

The early 70s period had left Coughlan a diminishing star in Limerick politics. Michael Lipper, who had been the one to propose Coughlan as Mayor in '69, was chosen as a Labour candidate for the 1973 general election in Limerick and served as a rallying point for Anti Coughlan Labour members. Although Lipper was not successful, he performed much better than expected and demonstrated the scales were beginning to tip against Coughlan. The 1977 general election pitted Coughlan directly against Lipper when Lipper choose to run as an Independent. When all the votes were counted, Coughlan lost his seat to Lipper aided by the fact the Bishop of Limerick Jeremiah Newman threw his support behind Lipper, something that deeply annoyed Coughlan. Despite their differences, many years after their '70s feud Jim Kemmy stated "I felt no bitterness towards Stevie Coughlan and I can recognise the good work he did." Coughlan died at the Regional Hospital, Limerick, after a long illness, 20 December 1994.