GAA chief and father of ‘swing-gate’ TD Maria Bailey leaves €1.9m
THE late John Bailey, a prominent member of Fine Gael, president of Dublin GAA for more than a decade and father of former TD Maria Bailey, has left almost €2m in his will.
Mr Bailey was a businessman, landowner and member of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council when he died at his home in Killiney in July, 2019 of motor neurone disease at the age of 74. He was also a prominent member of the GAA and as chairman of the Dublin County Board, he was an early campaigner to have ‘the ban’ on so-called ‘foreign games’ like soccer and rugby, lifted by the organisation.
Mr Bailey, who was born on Hyde Road in Dalkey, stipulated in his will: “My coffin is to be marched from the public house previously known as McDonagh’s Pub to Dalkey Church with a Dublin GAA flag draped over my coffin and with the Artane Boys’ Band providing musical accompaniment”.
A member of the local Cuala club, he refereed the All-Ireland hurling final of 1986 and remained active in the GAA and politics, being re-elected to his local council in south Dublin just six weeks before his death.
In May 2019, Maria, one of his five daughters and his political heir became embroiled in the damaging controversy that became known as ‘swing-gate’. It was revealed that the poll-topping Fine Gael TD had lodged a compensation claim against the Press Up group, over a fall from a swing in one of its premises.
The incident, during a night out at the Dean Hotel in Harcourt Street, Dublin in July 2015, prior to her election, led to a huge publicity storm after her claim for compensation was revealed in the Irish Independent. Ms Bailey, a mother of two children, insisted that she had been injured in the fall and took the case on legal advice.
However, she later withdrew the compensation claim and as a result of the media spotlight and political fallout within Fine Gael following a party investigation, ordered by then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, she was deselected as a party candidate in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown for the 2020 General Election.
Maria Bailey decided not to stand as an Independent.
According to papers lodged in the Probate Office in Dublin, John Bailey, public representative, who died on July 9, 2019, left estate valued at €1,934,816 in his will. He left €20,000 to the Irish Cancer Society and his entire estate to his wife of 48 years, Angela.
As well as his years as a public representative and a prominent GAA administrator, Mr Bailey was owner of The Arches pub in Dalkey, which he sold in 1990 and was involved in other business ventures. He was also a licensed horse trainer at one time and owned about 100 acres of land at Castlewarden, Kildare.
During his funeral, Maria said that her father was “a man of the people with a common touch” who had raised five daughters to be strong, independent women and passed on to them his “strong values of compassion, integrity, honesty, hard work and leadership”.
She also told mourners motor neurone disease is the cruellest of diseases because it took away the power of speech, “but he found new ways to communicate with us”.