Michael O'Halloran (British politician)

Michael Joseph O'Halloran (20 August 1933 – 29 November 1999) was a British politician. He was brought up in County Clare, Ireland, and, finding no employment, he "drifted to London" in 1948, aged 15, and worked as a railwayman until he entered politics.

He was elected Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North in a by-election in 1969 following the death of sitting MP Gerry Reynolds. He had previously been the secretary of the Constituency Labour Party. His selection over Keith Kyle was the subject of an investigation in the early 1970s by The Sunday Times newspaper. They highlighted his background with a local building company and the local Irish community and questioned the propriety of the tactics of his supporters during his selection as candidate. Regarding Northern Ireland he was staunchly pro-Nationalist and anti-Partition. In his 14 years in parliament, O'Halloran only contributed twice to parliamentary debates.^[1]

O'Halloran was among the Labour MPs who defected to the new Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. However, in 1983, the SDP chose John Grant, the MP for Islington Central (which was being abolished in boundary changes), to be its candidate in Islington North. O'Halloran left the SDP to stand as an independent Labour candidate in the 1983 general election. The official Labour candidate Jeremy Corbyn won while O'Halloran came in fourth with 11% of the vote. Grant came third with 22% of the vote.

He retired to County Wexford with his wife, and lived there until his death at age 66.

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1983
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Michael O'Halloran