Clinton, Mark (1915-2001)--DB5190
Biographical Notes
Date of birth and date of death
07.02.1915-23.12.2001
Maiden name, place of origin
Walterstown, Moynalty, County Meath
Marital status, religious denomination, children
Married to Margaret Kearney; Catholic; 7 children
Social background, family connections
Farmer's son; Son of Tom Clinton, farmer of 65 hectares
Education, occupation and public functions
Education
Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin; Salesian Agricultural College, Warrenstown; Kells Christian Brothers' School
Occupation
Minister of Agriculture 1973-1977; Peamount Sanatorium: Manager of the 182 hectare farm; Ferguson-Brown Company: Sales manager for Ireland, Ford-Ferguson light tractor developer
Functions in agricultural institutions
Clann na Talmhan: Member of the national executive 1943
Functions in other institutions
Farming expert on Radio Eireann
Political activities
European Parliament: MEP (Fine Gael) 1979-1989; Oireachtas: Agricultural committee, vice-chairman 1984-, member 1979; Dáil Eireann: TD 1961-1981; Dublin County Council: Chairman 1957-1959 and 1968-1969, member 1955-; Dublin County Council Planning Committee 1972-1973; Dublin County Committee of Agriculture: Chairman 1965-1968, member 1960-; General Council of the County Committees of Agriculture; Dublin Health Authority; Eastern Health Board 1972-1973; Dublin Vocational Education Committee 1970-1973
Short Biography
Mark Clinton was a farmer, agriculturalist, agricultural machinist and vocationally agricultural politician. He came to prominence as an advocate of more commercially orientated farming on Irish radio from the late 1940s, encouraging farmers, for instance, to move away from the subsistence practice of farming cattle for both beef and milk. He believed that specialised dairy farming offered them their best prospects owing to Ireland's soil and climate. Clinton supported the National Farmers' Association in 1966 and 1967 in its protests about the prices paid to farmers for their produce. He also presided over the dissolution of the semi-state Dairy Disposal Company, which controlled the dairy industry in much of Munster and which many farmers felt paid poorly for milk. His term as minister for agriculture in the National Coalition government of 1973 to 1977 coincided with Ireland's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) and, therefore, with the start of access to large farm price subsidies and grants. These he pursued vigorously and conspicuously, working closely with his friend, Paddy O'Keeffe, of the Irish Farmers' Journal. Adversities arose nevertheless. Chiefly, there was the collapse in cattle prices in 1974 and his failure to integrate the county advisory services, state-sponsored agricultural education and An Foras Talúntais, the Irish agricultural research institute. Clinton responded to the cattle price crisis by levering the EEC into arrangements that favoured Irish farmers with inflated food prices. This aggrieved Irish workers, however, who Clinton appeased by approving proper taxation for farmers (while at the same time limiting its extent). Clinton's vision for a reform of the structures of Irish agriculture, using EEC subvention, were curtailed by the economic crises of the 1970s, of which he was a casualty in that despite his skill at drawing down EEC funding for Irish agriculture, his Fine Gael-led government suffered a drubbing at the 1977 general election. Thereafter, his focus shifted back to his pre-political career as farm manager at Peamount Hospital and then, from 1979, to the European parliament, to which his popularity with the farmers of the Leinster constituency saw him returned handsomely.
Author: Mícheál O Fathartaigh
References
Own publications
Sources
- ARH file no. 3388
- Clavin, Terry, Mark Clinton, Dictionary of Irish Biography Online
- Daly, Mary E., The First Department: A History of the Department of Agriculture, Dublin 2002
- O Fathartaigh, Mícheál, Developing Rural Ireland: A History of the Irish Agricultural Advisory Services, Dublin 2021
- O Fathartaigh, Mícheál, Irish Agriculture Nationalised: The Dairy Disposal Company and the Making of the Modern Irish Dairy Industry, Dublin 2014
- Irish Farmers' Journal, 17.09.1960; 23.09.1961; 18.06.1966