Pat Rabbitte

Pat Rabbitte ( Irish: Pádraic Ó Coinín; born June 18, 1949 County Mayo, Ireland) is an Irish politician and served from 2002 to 2007 the chairman of the Irish Labour Party.

Rabbitte was during his studies politically active. He was 1970-1971 President of the Students Association of the University College Galway and 1972-1974 Chairman of the Irish national students union Union of Students in Ireland. After graduating, he became active in the trade union movement and was until 1976 a member of the Labour Party. After that, he was oriented to the left and eventually found a new political home in the Workers' Party, for which he was elected in 1989 for the first time in the Irish Parliament. Since then he has been continuously Member of Parliament.

In 1992 he was one of the six MPs who left the Workers' Party and a new party, the Democratic Left ( DL) founded. In the coalition government of 1994 to 1997 formed his party along with the Labour Party and Fine Gael, was Rabbitte Minister of State.

After the so-called rainbow coalition was voted out in 1997, the Democratic Left in 1999 united with the Labour Party.

After the disappointing outcome of the election for the party in 2002, the former Labour leader Ruairí Quinn stepped back and Rabbitte was elected by the members of the Labour Party in a ballot for the party leader. His Deputy Liz McManus was a member until 1999 of the Democratic Left.

2007 came as a result of cutting Rabbitte his party back at the elections from the post of party chairman. New party leader Eamon Gilmore was.