Former Fianna Fáil TD and minister of state Thomas Meaney, who has died at the age of 91, was a member of the Dáil for 17 years and a prominent figure in Cork politics.
He was part of a group of Fianna Fáil deputies known as “The Club of 22” who opposed the leadership of Charles Haughey in the early 1980s.
Tom Meaney was born on August 11, 1931, in Millstreet, Co Cork. He was a member of Cork County Council from 1970 to 1977 and a TD for Fianna Fáil from 1965 in the constituency known as Cork Mid and, when it was abolished in 1981, moved to Cork North-West where he won a seat in two general elections before retiring in 1982.
He was party spokesperson on defence in 1973 and minister of state at the Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism from 1980 to 1981.
He was the first minister from a Dublin government to meet a counterpart from Northern Ireland to establish north-south measures to promote tourism on both sides of the Border.
