Ex-seminarian whose plea for gay marriage won praise
TOM CURRAN is the longest serving general secretary of any political party. And despite holding one of the most coveted roles in Fine Gael, the 62-year-old Donegal man prides himself on having never strayed too far from his farming background.
He starts each day tending to his farm on the outskirts of Enfield, Co. Meath, before travelling to Dublin, where he arrives at Fine Gael HQ sometime around 11am.
The father of four and his family live a self-sufficient lifestyle, getting all the meat and vegetables they need from their holding. It was this intense interest in farming that ultimately led Curran to become the top executive within Fine Gael.
He grew up in Portroad, Letterkenny, where his father, Con, worked with the Department of Forestry. One of two boys and four girls, after leaving school he went to a seminary where he studied to be a priest, but abandoned that ambition when he met his wife-to-be Noeleen.
In a newspaper article in May last year, Mr Curran explained: ‘As a young man I wished to become a priest. I then fell in love with Noeleen and decided to enter the “married state”. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made.’
He then studied business, and was appointed a director of the National Youth Council of Ireland. From there he became chief executive of the national organisation for young farmers, Macra na Feirme.
On arriving at Macra’s headquarters, at the Irish Farmers’ Association building in Bluebell, Dublin, in 1993, Mr Curran admitted that he was uncomfortable with the unlimited power the position bestowed on him. Nevertheless, he still set about making management changes at Macra na Feirme.
And it was while working there that he developed a close relationship with Jim Miley, then Fine Gael general secretary. Six years later, Curran succeeded Miley in 1999.
He was secretary general under John Bruton’s leadership, through Michael Noonan’s heave against the ex-taoiseach, and during the 2002 general election wipeout. He worked closely with Frank Flannery – also a former seminarian – to build the party from the wilderness.
Indeed this week, many party faithful believe that veteran strategist Flannery would have provided wiser counsel to Curran in dealing with the Perry situation.
According to some within Fine Gael, their general secretary’s management style has irked some and they resent his presence at parliamentary party meetings.
A source said: ‘He puts fierce pressure on people he deems to be dissidents and, to give an example, when one TD asked questions Curran turned around and said “you may not be on the ticket” next time.
‘There was a complete balls of the Perry convention and this could all have been avoided.’
He last made headlines when he campaigned for a Yes vote in the gay marriage referendum.
His intervention, when he revealed that one of his three sons was gay, surprised many. The staunch and committed Catholic regularly chairs meetings of the Association of Catholic Priests and is a committed voluntary worker in his local parish.
He describes himself as a ‘cardcarrying, practising Catholic’. He prays every day, goes to Mass every Sunday and has declared that his ‘life has been shaped by my faith’.
However, when revealing that his youngest son Finnian was gay, and how he came out to them he wrote: ‘We hugged. We held each other. We felt together as a family in a new stronger way.’
The profile Tom Curran gained from that intervention was positive – but the latest headlines are likely to be less so.
‘He said: You may not be on the ticket next time’