Donal John Lydon (born 7 August 1938) is an Irish psychologist and former politician. He was a

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

member of

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann ( ; ; "Senate of Ireland") is the senate of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (defined as the house of representatives). It is commonly called the Seanad or ...

from 1987 to 2007, elected on the

Labour Panel The Labour Panel is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the senate of the Oireachtas (the legislature of Ireland). The Labour Panel elects eleven senators. Election Article 18 of the Const ...

Professional career

Lydon was born in Dublin, and was educated at

St Eunan's College St Eunan's College ( ; ), known locally as The College to distinguish it from the cathedral and GAA club, is a voluntary Roman Catholic all-male, English-medium secondary day school (and former boarding school) in County Donegal, Ireland. It ...

Letterkenny Letterkenny ( , meaning "hillside of the O'Cannons"), nicknamed the Cathedral Town, is a large town in County Donegal, Ireland, on the River Swilly in the north-west of Ulster. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is a regional eco ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

;

University College Galway The University of Galway () is a public university, public research university located in the city of Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Ga ...

;

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

and

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

. His bachelor's degree was in sociology and English; his postgraduate work was in the area of education and psychology. Lydon has also worked as a consulting psychologist. For a number of years, he was a non-executive director of Connsbrook Productions Limited and a non-executive of Corona Holidays Limited in Dublin. He has published a number of papers in professional journals, mostly in the area of alcoholism or psychopathology in adolescents. Lydon was awarded a Council of Europe Medical Fellowship in 1977 in order to go abroad to study "Residential Treatment of Disturbed Adolescents". He was the first psychologist in Ireland to receive such a fellowship.

Political career

He was a member of

Dublin County Council Dublin County Council () was a local authority for the administrative county of County Dublin in Ireland. History The county council was established on 1 April 1899 under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 for the administrative count ...

from 1985 to 1993 and was a member of

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council () is the local authority of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that succeeded the former Dublin County Council on its abolition on 1 January 1994 a ...

from 1994 to 2002. He was first elected to

in 1987 and was elected at all subsequent elections until his defeat at the 2007 election. He has at various times been the Senior Senate Spokesman on Justice, Senior Senate Spokesman on the Department of the

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

and European Affairs, Senior Senate Spokesman on European Affairs, and laterally held the position of Spokesman on Foreign Affairs with Special Responsibility for Overseas Development Assistance and Human Rights. He has served as a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Women's Rights, the Joint Services Committee, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Social, Community and Family Affairs and was laterally a member of the Joint Parliamentary European Affairs Committee. In February 1993, during a meeting in the council chamber of Dublin Corporation, he famously grabbed the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

Trevor Sargent Trevor Sargent (born 26 July 1960) is a minister of the Church of Ireland and a former Irish Green Party politician who served as a Minister of State from 2007 to 2010 and Leader of the Green Party from 2001 to 2007. He served as a Teachta Dál ...

in a headlock when Sargent waved a cheque, sent to him by a builder. Sargent asked the rest of the council had they been sent any checks, and if they thought that this was a case of the building sector attempting to bribe the council. Lydon was nominated as a candidate for the 23rd Seanad in 2007 and stood as a member of Fianna Fáil. His proposers included Senator Tom Morrissey, former Fianna Fáil Senator Margaret Cox and Fianna Fáil TD Ned O'Keeffe. He lost his Seanad seat in the 2007 election. He was a member of the Irish Council of the European Movement and served as vice-chairman from 1991 to 1993. He was also a member of both the Council and Executive of The Institute of European Affairs.

Bribery investigation

The

Criminal Assets Bureau The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) () is a law enforcement agency in Ireland. The CAB was established with powers to focus on the illegally acquired assets of criminals involved in serious crime. The aims of the CAB are to identify the criminally ...

secured a freezing order from the High Court on 26 July 2007 based on its investigation of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

in respect of

bribes Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrar ...

allegedly paid to councillors by Frank Dunlop to secure the rezoning on 16 December 1997 by

of of land assets owned by Jackson Way Properties at Carrickmines. This rezoning was investigated by the

Mahon Tribunal The Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, commonly known as the Mahon Tribunal after the name of its last chairman, was a public inquiry in Republic of Ireland, Ireland established by Dáil Éireann in 1997 to investiga ...

in 2003. Lydon stood charged with corruption following his district court appearance on Friday 22 October 2010 along with 3 other former FF councillors. The charges were dropped after a medical condition prevented Dunlop from giving his full testimony.

Senate expense claims

In 2004, Lydon changed his place of residence from Dublin to Donegal to qualify for a different

travel and subsistence Travel and subsistence expenses describe the cost of spending on business travel, meals, hotels, sundry items such as laundry (though usually only on long trips) and similar ad hoc expenditures. These reimbursements often have tax and related implic ...

rate, despite living and working in Dublin. Lydon's yearly claim for travel and subsistence varied from €37,000 to €39,000 during the years 2004 to 2006, (in 2007 he claimed €24,000 as he only worked for 7 months). It has been reported that there will not be an investigation into his expenses as "there is no provision for looking into the expenses claims of former members of the Oireachtas" On 27 March 2012, after being named in the final report of the

for receiving corrupt payments, Lydon resigned from Fianna Fáil before he could be expelled.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lydon, Don 1938 births Living people Alumni of University College Dublin Alumni of the University of Galway Members of Dublin County Council Fianna Fáil senators Members of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Council Members of the 18th Seanad Members of the 19th Seanad Members of the 20th Seanad Members of the 21st Seanad Members of the 22nd Seanad People educated at St Eunan's College Labour Panel senators Alumni of Trinity College Dublin