William Norton

William Norton (Irish Liam Ó Neachtain, * 1900, † December 4, 1963 ) was an Irish politician of the Irish Labour Party and Deputy Prime Minister ( Tánaiste ).

Biography

William Norton was elected at a by-election in the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish Parliament on 18 February 1926, he owned up to his death. In 1932 he was appointed as successor to Thomas J. O'Connell Chairman of the Irish Labour Party. As such, he supported Éamon de Valera's first Fianna Fáil government, which promised a program of social reform, which corresponded to the ideas of the Labour Party. Under his leadership it had in the 1940s appears that the Labour Party, Fine Gael could replace as the strongest opposition party. Finally they reached 17 seats in the election in 1943 - the best result. However, his tenure was marked as party chairman during this period, the dispute between the union leaders James Larkin and William X. O'Brien, the 1944 release of O'Brien from the Labour Party came to a head itself and the subsequent establishment of the National Labour Party.

After the electoral defeat of the Fianna Fáil government led by de Valera in the general election of 1948, the Labour Party was formed together with the Fine Gael under John A. Costello, a coalition government in which Norton from February 1948 to June 1951 Deputy Prime Minister ( Tánaiste ) and Minister for Social welfare was.

Between June 1954 and March 1957 he was again Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Industry and Commerce, this time in the second cabinet of Costello. In 1960, he finally handed then the office of party chairman of the Irish Labour Party at Brendan Corish.

When necessary, become by his death election Terence Boylan was Éireann on 19 February 1964 in the 17th Dáil.