Blaney was also a TD for Donegal ; a staunchly Republican area which bordered Derry.

There was general surprise when, in an incident known as the Arms Crisis, Haughey, along with Blaney, was sacked from Lynch's cabinet amid allegations of the use of the funds to import arms for use by the IRA.

Lord defeated Norman Betts, who was the perceived frontrunner, as well as Margaret-Ann Blaney, who, with Betts, would go on to serve in Lord's cabinet and Cleveland Allaby.

This played to his strengths, and many of his decisions are considered farsighted ; the principle in Blaney v Hendricks, for example, that interest is due on an account where money was lent, which anticipated Section 3 of the Law Reform ( Miscellaneous Provisions ) Act 1934.

At the time it was believed that this by-election victory was partly due to Neil Blaney and his " Donegal Mafia ".

The case against the accused government ministers Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney was dismissed in the Supreme Court, and both ministers were acquitted.

Four ministers, Charles Haughey, Neil Blaney, Kevin Boland and Micheál Ó Móráin, were either sacked, or resigned, or simply retired from the government due to the scandal that was about to unfold.

Neil Terence Columba Blaney ( 1 October 1922 – 8 November 1995 ) was an Irish politician.

Neil Blaney was born in 1922 in the rural Fanad Peninsula in north County Donegal in Ireland.

It was from his father that Blaney got his strong republican views and his first introduction to politics.

At the 1948 general election, Blaney was elected to Dáil Éireann for the Donegal East constituency in a by-election, caused by the death of his father from cancer.

Upon his election Blaney was the youngest member of the Dáil.

Blaney was appointed Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, becoming the first government minister from Donegal, however, he moved to the position of Minister for Local Government at the end of 1957 following the death of Seán Moylan.

Blaney proved to be an innovative minister and his first task as minister was to prepare the groundwork for the referendum to scrap the proportional representation electoral system and replace it with the first-past-the-post voting system.

The referendum failed to be passed, however, Blaney was retained in the post when Lemass succeeded de Valera as Taoiseach in 1959.

In the subsequent cabinet reshuffle Blaney was appointed Minster for Agriculture and Fisheries.

In 1969, when conflict broke out in Northern Ireland, Blaney was one of the first to express extremely strong Irish republican views, views which contradicted the policy of the Irish Government, in support of Northern nationalists.

Blaney was a native of Ulster and was affected by the outbreak of violence in parts of his home province.

The group was dominated by Blaney up until his death.

There was general surprise when, in an incident known as the Arms Crisis, Blaney, along with Haughey, was sacked from Lynch's cabinet amid allegations of the use of the funds to import arms for use by the IRA.

The hawks in the cabinet were seen as Kevin Boland and Neil Blaney, both sons of founding fathers in the party with strong Old IRA pasts.

Haughey and Blaney were subsequently tried in court along with an army Officer, Captain James Kelly, and Albert Luykx, a former Flemish National Socialist and businessman, who allegedly used his contacts to buy the arms.

He engineered confidence and supply agreements with the Independent Socialist TD, Tony Gregory ( in return for £ 100 million of investment in the Dublin North Inner City ; a deal dubbed the Gregory Deal ), the Independent Fianna Fáil TD Neil Blaney and three Workers ' Party TDs, which saw him return as Taoiseach for a second time.

Both ministers were sacked after some initial procrastination on Lynch's part, his innocent Minister for Justice, Micheál Ó Móráin, retired the day before and a fourth minister, Kevin Boland and his Parliamentary Secretary, resigned in sympathy with Haughey and Blaney.

Blaney later worked as an organiser with the Irish National Vintners and Grocers Association.

Haughey and Blaney were subsequently tried in court along with an army Officer, Captain James Kelly, and Albert Luykx, a Belgian businessman who allegedly used his contacts to buy the arms.

This was opposed by other members of the Blaney family, including all seven children of Neil Blaney and his widow Eva who issued a press release prior to Niall Blaney's decision castigating the Fianna Fáil party and disassociating themselves from any so called ' truce ' with them.

It was also opposed by the Independent TD's Neil Blaney and Tony Gregory, with Blaney describing the agreement as " a con job ".

Fianna Fáil's Cecilia Keaveney lost her seat to the Fine Gael candidate Joe McHugh, with McDaid and Blaney being the two successful Fianna Fáil candidates.

The Minister for Agriculture, Neil Blaney, allegedly made plans with Captain James Kelly to import weapons from continental Europe.

Along with Donal Blaney, Greg Smith, and Ben Pickering he helped establish the Young Britons ' Foundation and is chairman of it.

Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, and G. W. Bailey co-star, with Tim Blaney providing the voice of robot " Number 5.

The medieval castle was originally built in the 13th century by Stuart Cullen, an early Anglo-Norman warrior and landowner in North Kildare. He had been given extensive lands in the area of Kill, Celbridge and Mainham by his brother, Rurai Blaney, who had come to Ireland with ' Strongbow ', the Earl of Pembroke.

He also claimed that Blaney and Haughey were not implicated with the arms in question and that the wrong people had been sacked.

* May 28 – Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney appear in Dublin's Bridewell Court charged, along with Albert Luykx and Capt.

Haughey, then Minister for Finance and the hardline Blaney, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries who was from the Donegal North – East constituency bordering Northern Ireland were members of the subcommittee, along with Pádraig Faulkner and Joseph Brennan.

Neil Blaney allegedly made plans with Captain James Kelly to import weapons from continental Europe.

Upon hearing this Haughey and Blaney, the latter having never really entered the race in the first place, withdrew and announced their support for Lynch.

However outside the Northwest and apart from Boland, Blaney failed to attract much support.

Younger men such as Brian Lenihan, Charles Haughey, Patrick Hillery and Michael Hilliard were all given their first Cabinet portfolios by Lemass, and ministers who joined under de Valera, such as Jack Lynch, Neil Blaney and Kevin Boland were promoted by the new Taoiseach.

Following Fianna Fáil's victory at the 1957 general election Éamon de Valera, as Taoiseach, brought new blood into the Cabinet in the shape of Blaney, Jack Lynch, Kevin Boland and Micheál Ó Móráin.

Following his expulsion from Fianna Fáil, Kevin Boland tried to persuade Blaney to join the Aontacht Éireann party he was creating but Blaney declined.

In 1970 the outbreak of the Arms Crisis saw Kevin resign as minister and as secretary of Fianna Fáil in protest at the government's policy on Northern Ireland and in response to the sackings of Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney from the cabinet.

Four ministers, Charles Haughey, Neil Blaney, Kevin Boland and Micheál Ó Móráin, were either sacked, resigned or simply retired from the government due to the scandal that was about to take place.

Additional Muppets performed by Brad Abrell, Greg Ballora, Phil Baron, Tim Blaney, Pat Brymer, Julianne Buescher, Kevin Carlson, Augie Castagnola, Thomas Fountain, Liz Gandora, Terri Hardin, John Kennedy, Jennifer Keyes, Bruce Lanoil, Doug Legacy, Len Levitt, Drew Massey, Steven Ritz, David Rudman, Jeff Schnell, Joe Self, Lisa Thompson, and Leif Tilden.

Kevin Conway and Dave Blaney ran races under no.