Stephen Coughlan (26 December 1910 – 20 December 1994) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served for sixteen years as Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick East constituency. During the 1930s and 40s he was a member of the Irish Republican Army but in the post-World War 2 period he moved into politics, first with the Republican Clann na Poblachta party and then later with the Labour Party. After becoming extremely politically powerful in his home of Limerick City, Coughlan was criticised as being an extremely parochial politician who jealously guarded his power base against any challenger, even those in his own party, which resulted in a number of local splits and rivalries that ultimately corroded his support. Politically and socially conservative, Coughlan was frequently at odds with the rest of the Labour party, while his "colourful" behaviour often drew national attention.
Background
Coughlan was born in Limerick City, to a father Coughlan described as highly religious and to a mother Coughlan recalled as being a staunch Irish Republican. Coughlan educated at the local Presentation Sisters’ school before later boarding at Blackrock College, Dublin. He moved to Tralee in County Kerry in 1928 to become an insurance clerk. It was while Coughlan was in Tralee that he was recruited in the Irish Republican Army, with whom he remained a member until 1945. Coughlan claimed that during his time in the IRA he was involved in an unsuccessful assassination attempt upon Eoin O'Duffy, leader of the Blueshirts, with whom the IRA was engaged in a bitter feud with around 1933. It is also claimed that one of Coughlan's final acts in the IRA was an unsuccessful attempt to prevent O'Duffy and his Irish Brigade departing for the Spanish Civil War by ship from Limerick.
In December 1944, Charlie Kerins of Tralee, with whom Coughlan had developed a friendship, was executed for his role as a Chief of Staff of the IRA. His death prompted Coughlan to turn towards constitutional politics.
Political career
Clann na Poblachta
Through his Republican and IRA connections, Coughlan became a founding member of Clann na Poblachta, a Republican party founded by Seán MacBride that attempted to overtake Fianna Fáil from the political left. Coughlan became chairman of Clann na Poblachta and in 1951 became represented the party when he became a member of Limerick Corporation. That same year he was named Mayor of Limerick for the first time. He stood for election as a Clann na Poblachta candidate at the 1954 general election, when he won the second-highest number of first-preference votes, but in later counts missed out on a seat by a margin of just five votes. A recount still left only a difference of 29 votes. He stood again for Clann na Poblachta at the 1957 general election, but his vote had fallen significantly and he was again unsuccessful.
Labour TD
As Clann na Poblachta declined in support in the late 1950s, Coughlan left them and joined the Labour Party. He was elected as a Labour candidate at the 1961 general election, taking his seat in the 17th Dáil. In doing so Coughlan beat out former Clann party member, veteran campaigner and stalwart of Limerick politics Ted Russell.
As a new member of Labour, Coughlan joined an existing rural republican wing of the party that included the likes of Dan Spring, Sean Treacy and Thomas Kyne. In 1963, Coughlan helped bring former Clann na Poblachta comrade Noël Browne into the Labour party, an action he supposedly regretted the rest of his life.
In order to make headway in politics, Coughlan more or less had to abandon his previous profession as a local bookmaker and publican in order to campaign. Once he broke through, however, Coughlan was noted, even by his critics, as a fiercely active politician in tune with his constituents. As a TD, instead of using the position to discuss national politics in Dáil Eireann, Coughlan's contributions in the 1960s were almost exclusively related to local Limerick issues.