Death
O'Malley's package of reforms made him one of the most innovative and popular members of the government and he was affectionately known as 'the School Man' for his work in the area of education. His sudden death in Limerick on 10 March 1968, before his vision for the education system was completed, came as a great shock to the Irish public. He was buried with a full Irish state funeral.
Following O'Malley's death, his widow, Hilda O'Malley, did not run in the subsequent by election for the seat left vacant by her deceased husband. That by-election was won narrowly by O'Malley's nephew, Desmond O'Malley. However, Hilda O'Malley sought the Fianna Fáil nomination for the 1969 general election but Fianna Fáil gave the party nomination to the now sitting TD, Desmond O'Malley. Hilda O'Malley ran as an Independent candidate in that election and after what proved a bitter campaign against her nephew, she failed to get the fourth seat in Limerick East by just 200 votes.
Read more about this topic: Donogh O'Malley
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“Now they heap the funeral pyre,
And the torch of death they light;
Ah! ‘tis hard to die by fire!”
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)
“Because you live, O Christ,
the spirit bird of hope is freed for flying,
our cages of despair no longer keep us closed and life-denying.
The stone has rolled away and death cannot imprison!
O sing this Easter Day, for Jesus Christ has risen!”
—Shirley Erena Murray (20th century)
“We often see malefactors, when they are led to execution, put on resolution and a contempt of death which, in truth, is nothing else but fearing to look it in the face—so that this pretended bravery may very truly be said to do the same good office to their mind that the blindfold does to their eyes.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)