Michael McDowell | |
|---|---|
.jpg) McDowell in 2024 | |
| Senator | |
| Assumed office 8 June 2016 | |
| Constituency | National University |
| Tánaiste | |
| In office 13 September 2006 – 14 June 2007 | |
| Taoiseach | Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by | Mary Harney |
| Succeeded by | Brian Cowen |
| Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform | |
| In office 6 June 2002 – 14 June 2007 | |
| Taoiseach | Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by | John O'Donoghue |
| Succeeded by | Brian Lenihan |
| Leader of the Progressive Democrats | |
| In office 11 September 2006 – 25 May 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Mary Harney |
| Succeeded by | Mary Harney |
| Attorney General of Ireland | |
| In office 17 July 1999 – 6 June 2002 | |
| Taoiseach | Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by | David Byrne |
| Succeeded by | Rory Brady |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office May 2002 – May 2007 | |
| In office November 1992 – June 1997 | |
| In office February 1987 – June 1989 | |
| Constituency | Dublin South-East |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1951-05-01)1 May 1951 (age 74)[citation needed] Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Independent(2009–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3[1] |
| Education | Gonzaga College |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service |  Army Reserve |
| Years of service | 1970–1981 |
Michael McDowell (born 1[citation needed] May 1951) is an Irishindependent politician andbarrister. Active in Irish politics since the 1980s, he currently serves inSeanad Éireann as a senator for theNational University constituency.[2]
A grandson of Irish revolutionaryEoin MacNeill, McDowell was educated atGonzaga College and studied law atUniversity College Dublin andKing's Inns. He began practicing as a barrister in 1974, becoming asenior counsel in 1987. Initially a member ofFine Gael, he co-founded theProgressive Democrats in the mid-1980s and was elected three times as aTD for theDublin South-East constituency, serving in the25th Dáil (1987–1989), the27th Dáil (1992–1997), and the29th Dáil (2002–2007). He served asAttorney General of Ireland from 1999 to 2002 and asMinister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform from 2002 to 2007.
AfterMary Harney resigned as leader of the Progressive Democrats in September 2006, McDowell became party leader andTánaiste. He led the party into the2007 general election, where it lost six of its eight seats inDáil Éireann, including his own. McDowell resigned immediately as party leader—his brief tenure having made him the shortest-serving party leader in the history of the state—and left public life to resume his private legal career. The Progressive Democrats were formally dissolved in 2009. McDowell returned to politics as an independent in 2016 and was elected to Seanad Éireann, to which he was re-elected in 2020 and 2025. He was regarded as instrumental in opposing theMarch 2024 constitutional referendums on Family and Care, both of which were comprehensively defeated.
Born inDublin, he was educated at theJesuit schoolGonzaga College, then atUniversity College Dublin where he became auditor of theUCD Law Society. He later attended theKing's Inns in Dublin where he achieved theBarrister-at-Law degree in 1974. McDowell was a junior counsel on the legal team that defended the murderer Malcolm MacArthur in the notoriousGUBU case. In 2002, McDowell excused himself from considering MacArthur's parole report, to avoid any possible conflict of interest arising from this representation.[3] He was appointed asenior counsel in 1987. He is the husband of UCDaccountancy ProfessorNiamh Brennan and brother of UCD economics lecturerMoore McDowell.
He became involved in politics, initially as a member ofFine Gael. He contested the1979 Dublin Corporation election, coming 5th in the 4-seat Area 10 (Mansion House/Pembroke).[4]
WhenDesmond O'Malley was expelled fromFianna Fáil in 1985, McDowell immediately wrote to him in support, becoming a founding member of theProgressive Democrats (the PDs). McDowell was one of 14 PDs elected asTDs to the25th Dáil at the1987 general election, the first election after the party was founded.[5] He was elected for theDublin South-East constituency. He lost his seat at the1989 general election but was made chairman of the party. McDowell regained his seat at the1992 general election but lost it again at the1997 general election. At various times, he served as a member of the Progressive Democrats front bench in roles as spokesman for foreign affairs,Northern Ireland and finance. In July 1999, while the PDs were in acoalition government with Fianna Fáil, McDowell was appointedAttorney General of Ireland, a position he held until 2002. In 2000, he proposed changing the name of the party to the Radical Party.[6]
Following the2002 general election, McDowell regained his Dáil seat. This was the first time McDowell combined winning a Dáil seat with his party's entry into government. He was appointed to thecabinet as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. He was a strong opponent of the policies ofSinn Féin and theProvisional Irish Republican Army, and often took a harder line than his coalition partners, Fianna Fáil. He was named as Politician of the Year for 2004 in theMagill magazine annual awards.[7]
In 2005, he announced plans to introduceAnti-Social Behaviour Orders, although not in the same form as those in Britain.[8] McDowell'sIntoxicating Liquor Act 2003[9] prohibited cut-price drinks promotions and placed restrictions on alcohol advertising, as well as making it mandatory for under-21s to have proof of age when drinking in pubs.[10] This law also banned under-18s frompubs after 9 p.m., a regulation that was highly unpopular and was later relaxed to 10pm during the summer months.[11] In 2005, McDowell proposed to grant licences forcafé-bars which would have a limited capacity and serve meals as well as alcohol. It was hoped that this would combatbinge drinking by introducing a more European "café culture". This initiative was dropped owing to objections from publicans and members of his coalition partners, Fianna Fáil.[12]
In 2004, he proposed acitizenship referendum to end the automaticright to Irish citizenship for those born on the island of Ireland. The referendum was passed with an 80% majority.[13] The referendum was criticised by the some in the opposition, who accused McDowell of pandering to racist elements.[14] He reformed the private security industry, regulating it for the first time under the Private Security Services Act 2004 and establishing thePrivate Security Authority.[15]
McDowell launched far-reaching reforms of theGarda Síochána and introduced severe penalties (up to five years in jail) for Gardaí who leaked information under theGarda Síochána Act 2005,[16] after the force was extensively criticised by theMorris andBarr Tribunals and he was embarrassed by high-profile leaks of his plans for the force to newspapers from high-level Gardaí. He also introduced a voluntary ancillary branch of the police force despite huge resistance from paid employees.[17] McDowell'sCriminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act, 2005[18] ontelecommunications data retention compels service providers to store all telephone,SMS and internet records for three years and provide them to Gardaí on request. TheDigital Rights Ireland campaign group has filed a suit against the government in theHigh Court claiming that this law is a breach of the constitutional right to privacy.[19]
HisDefamation Bill of 2006 proposed a radical reform of Irish defamation law, replacing thetorts of libel andslander with one single offence of "defamation" and allowing the press to plead "fair and reasonable publication" as a defence in defamation cases.[20] Related to the defamation reforms, McDowell also proposed a newprivacy law which was heavily criticised by the newspaper industry.[21][22] In 2006, he established theBalance in Criminal Law Review Group, and in 2007 oversaw the enactment of their recommendation to roll back the right to silence.[23]
As Justice Minister, McDowell attracted a good deal of controversy:
In June 2006, McDowell was involved in a leadership dispute with party leaderMary Harney, over an alleged promise by Harney to step down in favour of him. The dispute appeared to have been resolved with Harney remaining as leader.[44] On 7 September 2006, Mary Harney unexpectedly resigned as party leader and McDowell became the favourite to succeed her in the consequentleadership election.Irish media reported on 10 September 2006 that Michael McDowell would be the sole nominee for party leadership,Liz O'Donnell would become Deputy Leader and thatTom Parlon would become Party President.[45] On 11 September 2006 McDowell was confirmed as party leader[46] and on 13 September 2006, he was appointed Tánaiste.
During the2007 general election campaign, the Progressive Democrats erected posters bearing the slogan, "Left wing government? No thanks". This was an echo of their 2002 election campaign when they issued posters bearing the slogan; "One party government? No thanks" which then targeted Fianna Fáil. In 2007 their target was theGreen Party. While McDowell was unveiling the poster during a press briefing in Ranelagh which was the site of his telegraph pole climb in the 2002 election; constituency opponentJohn Gormley of the Green party turned up to confront McDowell on the issue of an accompanying pamphlet which made misleading claims about the Green party. The ensuing exchange between them was dubbed theRumble in Ranelagh by the media.[47] During the 2007RTÉ Television election debate, McDowell remarked on the state of the opposition parties: "I'm surrounded by the left, the hard-left and the left-overs."[48]
Although he had a high profile as party leader, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, McDowell's vote dropped from 6,093 (18.8%) in the2002 general election to 4,450 (13.2%) in the 2007 general election. He was beaten for the last seat in the Dublin South-East constituency byJohn Gormley by a margin of 304 votes. He was the first sitting Tánaiste to lose his seat, and his subsequent departure from politics makes him the "shortest-serving political-party leader in the history of the State".[49] He stated that his time as a public representative was over.[50] On 25 May 2007, McDowell resigned as leader of the Progressive Democrats and announced that he was quitting politics, immediately and without consultation with his party colleagues, after losing his seat in the Dublin South-East constituency in the general election, while the party fell from eight seats to two.
The reaction of the press was divided:
That McDowell's career in government as Tánaiste is over is partly of his own making as he courted controversy to such a fevered extent that he became the most unpopular political leader in the country.[51]
McDowell's reforms of the prison service, the Gardaí and immigration policy are a monument to his five years as Minister for Justice.[52]
The thenMinister for Enterprise, Trade and EmploymentMicheál Martin, said he was sad to learn of his cabinet colleague's decision to resign. He said "he will be a significant loss" and called him a very formidable parliamentarian.[53]
| Elections to theDáil | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Election | FPv | FPv% | Result | ||
| Progressive Democrats | Dublin South-East | 1987 | 5,961 | 15.6 | Elected on count 14/15 | |
| Dublin South-East | 1989 | 2,853 | 8.7 | Eliminated on count 6/9 | ||
| Dublin South-East | 1992 | 4,504 | 11.2 | Elected on count 12/12 | ||
| Dublin South-East | 1997 | 4,022 | 10.9 | Eliminated on count 11/11 | ||
| Dublin South-East | 2002 | 6,093 | 18.8 | Elected on count 4/6 | ||
| Dublin South-East | 2007 | 4,450 | 13.2 | Eliminated on count 5/5 | ||
In 2016, McDowell stood for election toSeanad Éireann for theNational University constituency. He was elected on the 26th count.[54] He was re-elected to the Seanad in 2020.[55] He was re-elected again in 2025.[56]
McDowell opposed two proposedamendments to the Constitution of Ireland, the Thirty-ninth Amendment on the Family, which proposed to expand the constitutional definition of family to include durable relationships outside marriage, and the Fortieth Amendment on Care, which proposed to replace references to women's "life within the home" and the constitutional obligation to "endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home” with a new article on supporting care within the family.[57]
Prior to the2024 Irish constitutional referendums, McDowell formed anad hoc group of barristers, Lawyers for No, to voice concern about the potential legal consequences—in areas including family law, tax law, and succession rights—of the proposed amendments.[58] The group also includedMichael McNamara,Brenda Power, andMaria Steen.[58] Despite having the political support of all major political parties, both proposed amendments were comprehensively rejected, respectively by 67.7 and 73.9 percent of voters.[59] McDowell was regarded as having played an instrumental role in the outcome.[60]
In August 2025, Steen announced her intent to seek nominations to run in the2025 Irish presidential election as an independent candidate.[61] She secured 18 nominations from members of theOireachtas, but her candidacy failed after she could not reach the required threshold of 20 nominations by the deadline of noon on 24 September. McDowell was among the independent TDs and senators who opted not to nominate her, despite having campaigned alongside her in the lead-up to the previous year's constitutional referendums.The Irish Times reported that McDowell was "getting most of the blame" from Steen's supporters over the failure of her campaign, including an "online backlash".[62] McDowell subsequently stated inThe Irish Times that he did not nominate Steen because, as a liberal, he would have been opposed to a socially conservative andanti-abortionCatholic as president. "It would have been divisive and a step backwards for the kind of Ireland I believe in," he said.[63]
After losing his Dáil seat, McDowell returned to work as asenior counsel. In addition, he receives annual pension payments of €60,388,[64] which he donates to charity.[65] He represented theIrish Recorded Music Association in their case to forceEircom and UPC to filter their customers' Internet access and in some cases cut off their access completely.[66]
McDowell has described himself as a "Liberal" and a "Liberal [Irish] republican", someone who seeks aunited Ireland under aliberal democracy and part of the European Union, as opposed to a 32-county socialist republic possibly outside of the EU.[67] Known for his hard-nosed approach to politics in the 1990s and 2000s,Charles Haughey once described McDowell as "the nastiest piece of work who ever crawled into the Dail".[68]The Phoenix, a political magazine which writes from an Irish republican viewpoint, has suggested that from 2016 onwards, McDowell moved from a hard-edged, uncompromisingcentre-right figure known for his combative style to more of acentrist and pragmatic politician, presenting himself as a liberal statesman open to cross-party collaboration, focused on constitutional reform, local issues, and civil liberties rather than the ideological confrontations that had defined his earlier career.[69][70]
McDowell was one of the intellectual architects of the Progressive Democrats' low-tax, pro-business programme that shaped Irish policymaking through the Celtic Tiger years. As the party’s finance spokesman and later as a senior minister and party leader, he consistently argued for tax cuts, deregulation and a smaller state role in the economy, saying the PDs existed to deliver "radical" tax reform and enterprise-friendly measures.[71] The PDs' record in government (cuts to income-tax rates, big reductions in capital gains and corporation tax and a general deregulatory agenda) is routinely associated with McDowell’s agenda and public lobbying. Between the 2002 and 2007, the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats government implemented significant tax reductions and pro-enterprise reforms that PD sources and supporters credit to the PD's influence in coalition negotiations: lower income tax bands, a reduced top rate in practice, big falls in capital gains tax and the establishment of a competitive 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate that became central to Ireland’s inward investment strategy. McDowell publicly defended these policies as necessary to sustain growth and employment and frequently urged ministers to "hold to the Government’s liberal economic policy agenda".[72]
McDowell has a complex relationship with Irish republicanism; although he identifies himself as an Irish republican, during the 1990s and 2000s, he was considered one of the arch-opponents of the ideology in the Republic of Ireland.[73] As Attorney General and then Justice Minister, he frequently attacked republican leaders and organisations; In a radio interview on February 2005, he famously named Sinn Féin figures (such as Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness) as members of theIRA Army Council[74][75] while on other occasions McDowell compared the Provisionals to theNazis.[76] In 2005, McDowell compared the Irish republican newspaperDaily Ireland to Nazi propaganda.[77] In 2003, McDowell publicly claimed that Sinn Féin's funding was directly linked to criminal activities by the IRA and described the party as "morally unclean". He argued that senior IRA figures were engaging in crime to support the republican movement and rejected the idea that Sinn Féin's finances were separate from these activities.[78] However, privately in 2000 as attorney general, McDowell pitched royal pardons for members of the Provisional IRA during negotiations with the British government.[73][79]
Amidst these criticisms of the Provisionals in the 2000s, McDowell stated "When I look at people who now say I am anti-republican, I repeat that I am more republican than anyone in Sinn Féin" and that "I think the IRA and the Provos have bastardised republicanism completely". McDowell claimed his family had done more for Irish unification than any Provisional. McDowell cited that his grandfather,Eoin MacNeill, was the founder of theIrish Volunteers, who became theIrish Republican Army of theIrish War of Independence, and that his uncle Brian MacNeill had died fighting for theAnti-Treaty IRA during theIrish Civil War.[76]
In 2022 McDowell argued that "true" Irish republicans like himself should focus on reconciliation and practical unity (“Shared Island”) rather than maximalist demands, saying "reconciliation of Orange and Green is the true vocation of true republicans".[80] On 21 July 2010, McDowell suggested at the McGill Summer School thatThe Twelfth - 12 July, celebrated by Northern Ireland Protestants in commemoration of theBattle of Aughrim (1691) andBattle of the Boyne (1690) should be a public holiday in Ireland.[81]
In 2025, during an Irish high court case involving Gerry Adams, McDowell testified that Adams was widely regarded as a leading member of the IRA, including as part of its army council, and that Irish government officials held similar views based on intelligence briefings. McDowell acknowledged Sinn Féin's role in the peace process but said he abominated the party’s past actions and "dishonesty", asserting that Adams misrepresented himself as a mediator while being a dominant figure in the IRA.[82]
On social issues, McDowell has generally cast himself as a liberal. In 2025, he stressed that since first entering the Oireachtas in 1987, he has been "consistently liberal on social and economic matters".[63] In public debates, he supported the Yes side of referendums on divorce, same‑sex marriage and repealing the abortion ban.
In 2002, Michael McDowell, serving as Attorney General, publicly supported the government's proposed abortion legislation and encouraged a yes vote in the referendum. He argued that the proposals would appeal to the middle ground between pro-choice and pro-life extremes and would bring closure to two decades of legislative inaction on abortion. McDowell emphasised that the public should read the legislation before voting and predicted that a consensus would form around the government's approach.[83] In 2018, McDowell clarified that he did not personally support introducing stricter anti-abortion laws during the 2002 referendum, explaining that, in his role as Attorney General, he was obliged to represent the government’s position. He did not disclose how he personally voted at the time. By then, McDowell publicly endorsed repealing the Eighth Amendment, arguing that it had prevented justice for Irish women and girls.[84]
In 2025, McDowell declined to join a pro‑life presidential nominating caucus in 2025 and publicly said the election of a conservative Catholic candidate, Maria Steen, would have been a "step backwards" for the Ireland he believes in.[63]
As Minister for Justice between 2002 and 2007, McDowell made immigration control and the ending of unconditional birthright citizenship signature issues; in later years, writing and speaking as a senator and commentator, he has continued to press for tighter management of asylum and migration while criticising what he regards as inadequate EU responses.
McDowell played a leading role in the 2004 referendum that removed automatic constitutional entitlement to Irish citizenship for everyone born on the island of Ireland. As Justice Minister, he proposed and campaigned for the Twenty-seventh Amendment, arguing that the constitutional wording then in place made it very difficult to control immigration and that Ireland needed to bring its rules "in line with the rest of Europe". He published departmental figures and public arguments that alleged a significant share of non-EU births in Irish maternity hospitals were connected to what was often labelled "citizenship tourism". Opponents said the campaign played to xenophobic sentiment and risked stigmatising migrants. The referendum passed by a large margin in June 2004.[85]
In the 2020s, McDowell has argued that recent years have seen “uncontrolled asylum” used as a cover for economic migration and that Irish and EU institutions have lacked the competence or political will to manage this properly. He has been critical of the EU migration pact. He has proposed stronger emergency measures for housing and processing refugees in Ireland, including temporary emergency legislation when systems are under acute strain. He has said that concerns expressed by many citizens about the scale and pace of migration are not simply far-right rhetoric and must be addressed.[70][86]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Attorney General of Ireland 1999–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform 2002–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Tánaiste 2006–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Progressive Democrats 2006–2007 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
