Patrick McGilligan

Patrick McGilligan was born on 12 April, 1889 in Coleraine County Derry. He was educated in Derry, at Clongowes Wood in Dublin and at University College Dublin. He joined Sinn Féin but was unsuccessful in his attempt to be elected as a MP in 1918. McGilligan was called to the bar in 1921. In 1923 he was elected as a Cumann na nGaedhael TD. Between 1924 and 1932 McGilligan served as Minister for Industry & Commerce. In 1927 he set up the ESB (Electricity Supply Board). That same year McGilligan also took over the External Affairs portfolio following the assassination of Kevin O'Higgins. In this position he was hugely influential at the Committee on the Operation of Dominion Legislation and at the Imperial Conference in 1930. The Statute of Westminster emerged from these meetings which gave greater power to dominions in the Commonwealth like the Irish Free State. During his period in opposition from 1932 to 1948 he built up a law practice and became professor of constitutional and international law at University College Dublin. In 1948 McGilligan was appointed Minister for Finance in the first Inter-Party Government. Between 1954 and 1957 he served as Attorney-General. McGilligan retired from the Dáil in 1965 having served for over 40 years.

Patrick McGilligan died in Dublin in 1979.

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