Thady Coughlan (born 3 March 1951) is a former

Limerick City Council Limerick City Council () was the local authority of the city of Limerick in Ireland. The council had 17 elected members. The head of the council had the title of mayor. Limerick City Council was the smallest local government area in Ireland b ...

lor and former Mayor of

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

. He is the son of former Mayor

Stephen Coughlan Stephen Coughlan (26 December 1910 – 20 December 1994) was an Irish Labour Party (Ireland), Labour Party politician who served for sixteen years as Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick East (Dáil constituency), Limerick East constituency. Duri ...

. He is the youngest person to become Mayor of Limerick since the ousting of the "corrupt Corporation" in 1842.

Early life

Thady Coughlan was born in Limerick on 3 March 1951 into a political family. His father, Stephen Coughlan, was Mayor of Limerick from 1951–1952 and again from 1969 to 1970. He grew up on Barrington Street in Limerick city before his family moved to Wellington Place, off O'Connell Avenue. He received his primary education at St Philomena's National School before attending secondary school at

St Munchin's College St. Munchin's College is a boys–only Roman Catholic secondary school in Limerick, Ireland. It was founded by The Most Reverend John G. Young (bishop), John Young, Bishop of Limerick in 1796. As of January 2020, a total of 657 boys were enrolle ...

. One of his classmates in secondary school was Paddy Madden who would become Mayor of Limerick in 1988.

Political career

In 1974, he was elected to

as a Labour Party councillor, while his father was still a member. This marked the first time since 1842 that a father and son served on the council together. In 1975, he was elected

Mayor of Limerick The Mayor of Limerick is the head of the local government of the Limerick, City and County Limerick, County of Limerick. It is a directly elected office with a five-year term. Following the 2024 Limerick mayoral election, John Moran (Mayor of Li ...

. At age 24, he was a year younger than the previous youngest Mayor William O'Donnel (Mayor in 1890). In August of that year, he represented Limerick Corporation at the funeral of

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (; ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an American-born Irish statesman and political leader. He served as the 3rd President of Ire ...

. In October of the same year, he was present at the canonisation of

Oliver Plunkett Oliver Plunkett (or Oliver Plunket; ; 1 November 1625 – 1 July 1681) was the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland and the last victim of the Popish Plot. He was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, thus becoming t ...

, where he met the then

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

and future

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

who was bishop of Kraków at the time.

Retirement from politics

Thady Coughlan retired from public office in 1979 at the age of 28. He had commenced employment at the

Anglo Irish Bank Anglo Irish Bank was an Republic of Ireland, Irish bank headquartered in Dublin from 1964 to 2011. It began to wind down after nationalisation in 2009. In July 2011 Anglo Irish merged with the Irish Nationwide Building Society, forming a new co ...

in 1977, and became heavily involved in rugby in the city. In 2000 he became president of

Shannon RFC Shannon Rugby Football Club is the most successful club in the All Ireland League, having won the competition nine times. They hail from Limerick near the banks of the Shannon river. Shannon RFC is a member of the '' Irish Rugby Football Union ...

before becoming manager of the team in 2001. As of 2007, he was residing in Crecora, County Limerick.

References

*Matthew Potter, ''First Citizens of the Treaty City: The Mayors and Mayoralty of Limerick 1197-2007'', {{DEFAULTSORT:Coughlan, Thady Mayors of Limerick (city) Living people 1951 births