View source for Dan Spring

{{Short description|Irish politician (1910–1988)}}
{{for|the Canadian ice hockey player|Dan Spring (ice hockey)}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=July 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image         = Dan_Spring,_circa_1958.jpg
| image_size    = 160px
| caption       = Spring, {{circa}} 1958
| office        = [[Minister of State (Ireland)|Parliamentary Secretary]]
| suboffice     = [[Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Local Government]]
| subterm       = 1956–1957
| office1       = [[Teachta Dála]]
| term_start1   = [[1943 Irish general election|June 1943]]
| term_end1     = [[1981 Irish general election|June 1981]]
| constituency1 = [[Kerry North (Dáil constituency)|Kerry North]]
| birth_name    = Daniel Spring
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1910|7|22|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Tralee]], [[County Kerry]], Ireland
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1988|9|6|1910|7|22|df=y}}
| death_place   = Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland
| nationality   = [[Irish people|Irish]]
| party         = [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]]
| otherparty    = [[National Labour Party (Ireland)|National Labour Party]]
| spouse        = {{marriage|Anna Laide|1944}}
| children      = 6, including [[Dick Spring|Dick]] and [[Donal Spring|Donal]]
| relatives     = [[Arthur Spring]] (grandson)
|}}
{{Infobox Gaelic games player
| code= Football
| sport = Gaelic football
| image = 
| name = Dan Spring
| feet = 
| inches = 
| occupation = 
| county = Kerry
| province = Munster
| club = [[Kerins O'Rahilly's GAA|Kerins O'Rahilly's]]
| cposition = 
| clubs = 
| clyears = 1930s–1940s
| clapps(points) = 
| clcounty = 2
| clprovince= 
| clallireland = 
| counties = [[Kerry GAA|Kerry]]
| icposition = Full-Forward
| icyears = 1934–1940
| icapps(points) = 13 (6-10)
| icprovince = 4
| icallireland = 3
| nfl = 0
| allstars = 0
| clupdate = 
| icupdate =
|}}
'''Dan Spring''' (22 July 1910 – 6 September 1988) was an Irish [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] politician who served as a [[Teachta Dála]] (TD) for the [[Kerry North (Dáil constituency)|Kerry North]] constituency from 1943 to 1981.<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Daniel-Spring.D.1943-07-01/|title=Daniel Spring|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=31 July 2012}}</ref> He was a [[Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government]] from 1956 to 1957. He was the father of [[Dick Spring]], who led the Labour Party from 1982 to 1997.

==Early life==
Spring was born into a working-class family in [[Tralee]], [[County Kerry]] in 1910.<ref name=dib>{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/spring-daniel-a8213 |title=Spring, Daniel|work=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]]|last=White|first=Lawrence William|access-date=17 July 2024}}</ref> He left school at the age of 14 and began his working life with a series of low-skilled jobs. When he was working at a mill, he became involved in the [[Irish Transport and General Workers' Union]] (ITGWU) and after a while became a trade union official. He married Anna Laide (1919–1997) in 1944, and they had six children.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/mother-of-labour-party-leader-and-former-tanaiste-dies-1.105433|title=Mother of Labour Party leader and former Tanaiste dies|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|date=12 September 1997}}</ref>

==Sporting career==
Spring was a [[Gaelic football]] player, and was the captain of the [[Tralee]] [[Kerins O'Rahilly's GAA|Kerins O'Rahilly's]] team with whom he won two [[Kerry Senior Football Championship]] titles in 1933 and 1939. He first played with [[Kerry GAA|Kerry]] when he won Munster and All-Ireland Junior titles in 1930.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://munster.gaa.ie/history/junior-football/|title = Junior Football|date = 29 May 2009}}</ref> He later joined the senior team where he won All-Ireland titles in 1939 and captain of the side when they won the All-Ireland final in 1940.

==Politics==
He was elected to both Tralee Urban District Council (topping the poll) and [[Kerry County Council]], representing the Labour Party in 1942.<ref name=dib/> Through his involvement with the ITGWU he became well known enough to stand in Kerry North for the Labour Party at the [[1943 Irish general election|1943 general election]]. He was elected as the first Labour Party [[Teachta Dála]] (TD) for Kerry and held his seat until he retired in 1981.<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=2065|title=Dan Spring|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=31 July 2012}}</ref>

In 1944, Spring was among a group of six [[Teachta Dála|TD]]s who broke away from the Labour Party because it was allegedly infiltrated by [[communists]] and formed a new party they called the [[National Labour Party (Ireland)|National Labour Party]]. The Labour Party and the National Labour Party reunited in 1950, having worked alongside each other in the [[First inter-party government]] since 1948.

In 1956, during the term of the [[Second inter-party government]] Spring was appointed as [[Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government]], which he held until the government ended in 1957.<ref name=dib/>

For the rest of his political career Spring never held any significant post on a national level, and as a relatively conservative rural Labour man he fell out of step with the official line of the Labour Party, which moved significantly to the left during the 1960s and 1970s. During a vote on contraception, Spring famously said that on the day of the vote, his constituents would see how he stood on the issue. On the day of the vote, he appeared as a barrister in a court far away from the Dáil. Spring concentrated on his constituency work and was returned in every election he stood in until he retired in 1981, his son [[Dick Spring|Dick]] then successfully contesting the seat.<ref name=dib/>

==See also==
*[[Families in the Oireachtas]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before = [[William Davin]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = {{nowrap|[[Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government]]}}
       |years  = 1956–1957}}
{{s-non|reason = Office abolished}}
{{s-end}}
{{Kerry North (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}
{{Kerry Football Team 1939|state=collapsed}}
{{Kerry Football Team 1940|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring, Dan}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:All-Ireland–winning captains (football)]]
[[Category:Irish sportsperson-politicians]]
[[Category:Kerry inter-county Gaelic footballers]]
[[Category:Kerins O'Rahilly's Gaelic footballers]]
[[Category:Labour Party (Ireland) TDs]]
[[Category:Members of the 11th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 12th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 13th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 14th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 15th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 16th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 17th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 18th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 19th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 20th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 21st Dáil]]
[[Category:National Labour Party (Ireland) TDs]]
[[Category:Parliamentary secretaries of the 15th Dáil]]
[[Category:People from Tralee]]
[[Category:Politicians from County Kerry]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Tralee]]