Eamon Gilmore

Gilmore, Derek Nolan and Michael D. Higgins campaigning in Galway in 2008.

Banner of Gilmore on Liberty Hall, 2009.

Following Pat Rabbitte's resignation as party leader in August 2007, Gilmore announced his candidacy for the leadership. He received support from senior figures such as Michael D. Higgins, Ruairi Quinn, Willie Penrose, Liz McManus and Emmet Stagg, and did not have to contest a ballot, being formally confirmed as leader on 6 September, after being the only declared candidate.[23] He became the tenth leader of the Labour Party.

From early on in his Leadership Gilmore insisted that Labour should aspire to lead the next Government and set about building Labour as a third option for voters.[13] At the 2009 local elections, the Labour Party added to its total of council seats, with 132 seats won (a gain of 43) and by July 2010 had gained an additional six seats from councillors joining the party since the election. On Dublin City Council, the party was again the largest party, but now with more seats than the two other main parties combined.

At the 2009 European Parliament election held on the same day, the Labour Party increased its number of seats from 1 to 3, retaining the seat of Proinsias De Rossa in the Dublin constituency, while gaining seats in the East constituency with Nessa Childers, and in the South constituency with Alan Kelly.[24]

Initially Gilmore was in favour of the 2008 first Lisbon Treaty referendum. When it was lost, he declared that the "Lisbon Treaty is dead". According to a wikileaks cable dated 23 July 2008 and released in 2011, he told the US Ambassador privately that he would support a second referendum. The Ambassador reported that: "He explained his public posture of opposition to a second referendum as 'politically necessary' for the time being".[25] In 2009, the Lisbon Treaty proposal was passed by the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.

In September 2009, at the Labour Parliamentary Party Meeting in Waterford, Gilmore categorically ruled out a coalition with Fianna Fáil after the next general election, reiterating what he had said in earlier interviews.[26]

In his leader's address to the 2010 Labour Party Conference (17 April 2010), Gilmore outlined his vision that the Labour Party should lead the way in building 'One Ireland'. In this speech, he listed the Labour Party's policy priorities as Jobs, Reform and Fairness. He also said he was determined that the Labour Party would run enough candidates at the next general election to enable the Irish people to make Labour the largest party in the Dáil and to lead the next government.[27]

In July 2010, Gilmore again ruled out a coalition between his party and Fianna Fáil after a general election, even if such a coalition would put him in a position to become Taoiseach. Gilmore also said his party was well-positioned to win at least one seat in each of the country's 43 constituencies, and two seats in some constituencies in Dublin, Cork, other urban areas and commuter-belt counties. In all, he said the party had the potential to win 50 seats or more.[28]

Gilmore also played a leading role in the modernisation and liberalisation of Ireland's social legislation, most notably on divorce and abortion, and has been to the fore in the campaign for gay marriage. He is often quoted for citing gay marriage as "the civil rights issue of this generation". Gilmore also made a commitment to hold a constitutional referendum on the issue a key plank of the Labour/Fine Gael programme for government. A referendum on gay marriage was held in 2015.[29][30] He was a member of the cabinet committee that steered through Ireland's divorce legislation in 1996, as well as a member of the Divorce Action Group which campaigned for the legalisation of divorce in Ireland. In 1983, Gilmore campaigned against the ban on abortion in the Constitution.

As Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gilmore was behind the most significant expansion of Ireland's embassy network for several decades, opening eight new diplomatic missions across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas in 2014. Despite considerable media focus on the reopening of the embassy to the Vatican, which had been closed for economic reasons in 2011 along with the embassy to Tehran, the new missions are largely trade and investment-focussed.[31]

In 2013, Gilmore launched the first review of Irish foreign policy since 1996.[32]

Gilmore has also been a member of the first Economic Management Council (EMC), along with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, since March 2011. For the first three years of the Fine Gael/Labour government, the EMC was regarded as the lynchpin of the coalition's stability.[33]

Gilmore resigned from office on 4 July 2014, he was succeeded as party leader and as Tánaiste by Joan Burton.[34][35]

Gilmore led Labour to the best electoral performance in the party's 99-year history at the 2011 general election. The party won 37 seats. It did especially well in Dublin, taking 18 seats to become the largest party in the capital. Gilmore topped the poll in the Dún Laoghaire constituency.

Following the election, Labour entered coalition with Fine Gael. Gilmore became Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.[2] He appointed five Ministers to the Cabinet, six Ministers of State and Máire Whelan as Attorney General of Ireland. He also recreated the office of the Tánaiste within the Department of the Taoiseach to enhance his control over Government policy.[36] This office was originally created under Tánaiste Dick Spring in 1992, but was abolished by his successor Mary Harney.[37]

On 15 December 2013, Ireland became the first eurozone country to exit a €67.5 billion EU/IMF bailout programme following a multi-year programme. The so-called 'troika' bailout was triggered in November 2010 following the collapse of the Irish property market collapsed which in turn had pushed the country's banks into financial crisis.[38]

A blanket guarantee on all of the liabilities of the Irish banks – established by the previous Fianna Fáil/Green Party Coalition in September 2008 – dragged the State to near bankruptcy and forced the government to turn to the EU/IMF as lenders of last resort.[39]

In November 2014, the Government announced that it would exit the EU/IMF bailout programme without seeking a precautionary credit line, often referred to as a 'clean bailout exit'. In an interview with RTÉ's Morning Ireland radio programme on 15 November, Gilmore explained that the Government had conducted a long process of consultation with international institutions and other EU member states before making the decision to exit the bailout cleanly. He also pointed to the existence of a €20 billion "backstop" of reserve funding held by the National Treasury Management Agency that could fund the Irish State up until the beginning of 2015 if so required.[40]

On 11 November 2012, Gilmore became the first Irish Government Minister to take part in the annual Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Belfast when he laid a laurel wreath at the Cenotaph at Belfast City Hall to honour those who had died in the First and Second World Wars. He attended the ceremony again the following year.[41][42]

In September 2013, he was seen to have broken "new political ground" when in a speech to the British Irish Association in Cambridge, "he went out of his way to address a unionist perception of a failure by a number of Irish governments to properly combat the IRA".[19][43] In the same speech, he also said he hoped that the Government of Ireland could "host representatives of the royal family and the British government, along with the leaders of unionism, in Dublin in three years' time in remembering the Easter Rising".[44] He was part of the process which aimed at resolving issues relating to parading, flags and emblems, and the past that was chaired by US diplomat Richard Haass from September to December 2013,[45][46] and he maintained contact with the parties involved until he was replaced as foreign affairs minister in a cabinet reshuffle the following year.[47][48][49]

On 1 January 2012, Ireland assumed the 2012 chair of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE) for the first time. In his role as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gilmore served as the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE.[50]

As Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gilmore led Ireland's seventh Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the first half of 2013. He chaired the General Affairs Council of the European Union (EU) and acted as lead negotiator for the Council in talks with the European Parliament on a €960 billion, seven-year budget deal – also known as a Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) – for the EU for the period 2014–2020.[51][52]

In November 2011, Gilmore announced the closure of Ireland's embassies in Iran and the Vatican, and a representative office in East-Timor, on economic grounds. Ireland was to retain an ambassador to the Holy See who would reside in Ireland rather than Rome.[53] In January 2014, he announced that eight new diplomatic missions would be opened around the world, focussing mainly on trade and investment.[54]

As Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gilmore lobbied for comprehensive legislation overhauling US immigration laws to help an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, over 50,000 of whom are believed to be Irish.[55][56][57] On 17 June 2014, Gilmore travelled to Washington D.C. for two days of meetings, most of which focused on Republican members of the House of Representatives.[57][58][59]

In December, Gilmore once again put his support behind the Croke Park Deal on public sector pay and conditions. The dismissal of a renegotiation of the deal came in light of Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte's comments that the deal could be renegotiated along with calls from junior Fine Gael TDs that the agreement should be scrapped.[60]

On 2 June 2015, Gilmore announced his retirement from domestic politics, and that he would not be contesting the 2016 general election.[61] Since his retirement from Irish politics, Gilmore has worked for the European Union, as Special Envoy and Special Representative.

In February 2016, he was appointed as Adjunct Professor in the School of Law and Government in Dublin City University.

In 2017, he was Visiting Practitioner Professor of the School of Public Policy in the Central European University, Budapest. He has also lectured at universities, think tanks and public policy conferences throughout Europe, the UK, the USA, Latin America and Africa.

He is also a Member of the External Advisory Board of the National University of Ireland, Galway and is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Alpbach Forum in Austria.

On 1 October 2015, following his retirement from domestic politics in Ireland, Gilmore was appointed by High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini as European Union Special Envoy for the Colombian Peace Process. Gilmore brought particular insights from the Northern Ireland peace process to his work. His record and highly regarded standing as a former foreign minister are understood to have stood him in good stead for the nomination to the post.

On 19 February 2019, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini nominated Eamon Gilmore to be European Union Special Representative for Human Rights. His nomination was approved by the Foreign Affairs Council on 20 February 2019.

In 2015, Gilmore was named by the Washington based "Foreign Policy" Magazine as one of the 100 leading Global Thinkers for his role in Ireland's Marriage Equality Referendum, which approved same-sex marriage.

In 2016, he was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Laws by his alma mater, the National University of Ireland, Galway.

The Government of France has made him an Official of the Legion d'Honneur.

Colombia has honoured him with the Order of San Carlos (Gran Cruz) for his work on the Peace Process.

In 2017, he was shortlisted for the European Innovation in Politics Award for his role in the same sex marriage campaign, and also for his idea to establish the Constitutional Convention (later the Citizen's Assembly), which recommended the holding of the referendum.