*Donal Carey.
FORMER Clare TD and ex Junior Minister, Donal Carey (FG) has died, one month after celebrating his eighty eighth birthday.
A giant of Clare politics and the head of one of the county’s biggest political dynasties, Donal died on Tuesday evening.
Donal served as a Clare TD for two decades, prevailing in six General Election campaigns from 1982 to 2002. He was a Senator on the Labour Panel serving for one year following his election in 1981.
Following unsuccessful Dáil bids in 1977 and 1981, Donal took the final seat in February 1982 at the expense of then TD Madeline Taylor-Quinn (FG) and would remain a constant Clare representative until the 2002 General Election when he initially missed out on a party nomination at convention despite being a sitting TD.
In 1989, he topped the poll in Clare with 19.7 percent of the vote in the constituency which saw him elected on the third count in what was his greatest electoral performance.
During his spell in Dáil Éireann, he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach with responsibility for western development and rural renewal and Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht with responsibility for the Gaeltacht holding the posts from January 1995 to June 1997.
Clarecastle’s Donal began his career in politics when he was elected to Clare County Council in 1974 securing the highest vote of the four Fine Gael candidates in the field. He retained his seat on the local authority in subsequent elections in 1979 topping the poll with 1,485 first preferences, 1985 and 1991. For his successes in 1985 and 1991, he was elected in the Miltown Malbay area.
Politics was in the blood with Donal’s son Joe winning a seat on Clare County Council in 1999 before serving as a Clare TD from 2007 until 2024, exiting politics on medical grounds. His daughter, Leonora contested the 2024 General Election amassing 5,251 first preference votes in her first run for office, she later contested the Seanad Election on the Labour Panel at the beginning of this year. His son, Donal is the co-founder and co-owner of Carey Corbett Financial Solutions.
An astute political analyst, Donal remained engrossed in all matters in the world of politics as he progressed in years.
