Tom Leonard (Irish politician)

Thomas "Tom" Leonard (30 May 1924 – 5 March 2004) was a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency in Ireland.

Tom Leonard (on the podium, left) Christmas 1949, auctioning holly wreaths in the Dublin Fruit and Vegetable Markets.

Tom Leonard was born in Dublin, and worked much of his life in a family business in the Dublin Corporation Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Markets. The business had been started two generations earlier by his grandmother, continued by his father and ultimately passed to Leonard and his two brothers. Whilst in business, Leonard was also a Dublin City Councillor and Alderman.

His career in politics reached a new level in June, 1977, when he was elected to the 21st Dáil representing the constituency of Dublin Cabra. He served in the government of Jack Lynch until dissolution in 1981. At the end of his first term in office, Leonard's Cabra based constituency was discontinued by becoming part of the larger Dublin Central constituency. Leonard did not serve again until November, 1983 when he won a by-election for Dublin Central following the death of sitting TD George Colley, a former Tánaiste.

During this tenure, he was appointed by the then party leader and former Taoiseach Charles Haughey to the New Ireland Forum, a working group mandated to address the Northern Ireland issue.

Leonard did not contest the 1987 general election and departed from public life. He continued in the markets until his retirement, and died in Blanchardstown, Dublin in 2004.

References

• This page incorporates information from the Oireachtas Members Database

External links

• Fianna Fáil entry for Dublin Central constituency
• Tom Leonard Electoral Record
• Dáil Debate on the death of Tom Leonard
• Irish Independent obituary
• Tom Leonard Electoral paraphernalia