Patrick Mark "Paddy" Cooney (born 2 March 1931) is a former Irish Fine Gael politician. Most notable as Minister for Justice from 1973 to 1977, he was a Teachta Dála (TD) for 15 years, a senator for four years, and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for five years.
Cooney was born in 1931 and was educated at Castleknock College and University College Dublin. He first stood as a candidate for Dáil Éireann in the Longford–Westmeath constituency at the 1961 general election, but failed to win a seat, and he was defeated again in 1965 and 1969. However, after the death of the Fianna Fáil TD Patrick Lenihan, Cooney was elected to the 19th Dáil in the Longford–Westmeath by-election in April 1970.
The 1973 general election brought a Fine Gael-Labour Party National Coalition government to power, and Cooney was appointed to Liam Cosgrave's Cabinet as Minister for Justice. He order the coffin of Frank Stagg, an IRA volunteer, to be covered in concrete. In spite of being a high-profile Cabinet Minister he lost his seat at the 1977 general election but was elected to the 14th Seanad on the Cultural and Educational Panel. In 1979, at the first direct elections to the European Parliament, he stood unsuccessfully in the Connacht–Ulster constituency.
At the 1981 general election, he was returned to the Dáil again by his old Longford–Westmeath constituency. Cooney then held a number of positions in Garret FitzGerald's two governments. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Leinster constituency at the 1989 European Parliament elections, and did not contest the 1989 general election.
In November 2012, during the opening of an art gallery in Athlone Cooney is reported to have struck one exhibit with his crutch and demanded its removal from the gallery. The piece entitled Fragmens sur les Institutions Républicianes IV by artist Shane Cullen shows comms (tiny written communications smuggled in and out of Long Kesh prison) by Provisional IRA prisoners during the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
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