Conn Ward
Conn Ward | |
---|---|
Parliamentary Secretary | |
1932–1946 | Local Government and Public Health |
Teachta Dála | |
In office September 1927 – February 1948 | |
Constituency | Monaghan |
Personal details | |
Born | Francis Constantine Ward 12 February 1891 Donaghmoyne, County Monaghan, Ireland |
Died | 15 December 1966 Dublin, Ireland | (aged 75)
Political party | Fianna Fáil |
Spouse | Sheila Ward |
Children | 6 |
Education | Patrician Brothers' School, Carrickmacross |
Alma mater | University College Dublin |
Military service | |
Allegiance | |
Battles/wars | |
Francis Constantine Ward (12 February 1891 – 15 December 1966) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and medical doctor.[1]
Early life
He was born in County Monaghan on 12 February 1891 in Corlygorm, Donaghmoyne, County Monaghan, son of Patrick Ward, a farmer, and Elizabeth Ruddin. He was educated at the Patrician Brothers' schools, Carrickmacross, and studied medicine at University College Dublin (UCD). While a student at UCD he was a founder-member of the Irish Volunteers at the Dublin Rotunda meeting on 25 November 1913. He qualified as a doctor in 1914, and was medical officer in Scotstown, County Monaghan from 1915 to 1919, and Dundalk, County Louth from 1919 to 1920. He was selected to contest the 1918 general election for Sinn Féin in Monaghan North, but stood aside in favour of Ernest Blythe, who won the seat.[2]
Revolutionary period
He fought with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in his native county in the Irish War of Independence and on the Republican side in the Irish Civil War, having opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. A senior officer in the IRA, by the July 1921 truce he held the rank of colonel-commandant.
Politics
He was a founder member of Fianna Fáil.[2] He was an unsuccessful candidate at the June 1927 general election, but was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the September 1927 general election for the Monaghan constituency and was re-elected at each subsequent general election until his retirement in 1948.[3] After Fianna Fáil's victory at the 1932 general election he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health. He retained this junior ministerial rank through the 1930s and into the 1940s.
Parliamentary Secretary for Public Health
He served under successive ministers Seán T. O'Kelly and Seán MacEntee, and was delegated ever-increasing responsibility for health and public assistance. During the 1930s he concentrated resources on overhaul and extension of the hospital system. He utilised funds made available to the department from the hospitals sweepstakes, he authorised construction of twenty-four county and district hospitals and fourteen specialist hospitals. He established an advisory hospitals commission and unified friendly societies into a single national health insurance society. During this time he was effectively the Minister for Health.[2] Frequently consulting with catholic church authorities (notably Dublin archbishop John Charles McQuaid) over medical matters, at whose behest he banned sale of the newly marketed sanitary tampons in 1944, out of concerns regarding the sexual arousal of girls at an impressionable age.[2]
That same year he earned controversy for the government. He was poised to become the state's first health minister in view of announced government intentions to establish a separate
After politics
He retired from politics at the 1948 general election, and resumed his medical practice. He died in Dublin, on 15 December 1966, survived by his wife Sheila, four sons and two daughters.[2]
References
- ^ "Francis Ward". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f White, Lawrence William. "Ward, Francis Constantine". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
- ^ "Conn Ward". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 4 January 2009.