William Loughnane (5 August 1915 – 18 October 1982) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician.

Biography

He was born 5 August 1915 in Feakle, County Clare, son of Willie Loughnane, a farmer and shopkeeper, and Kate Loughnane (née McInerney). He was educated at Feakle national school; St Flannan's College, Ennis; CBS Limerick; and University College Dublin (UCD), where he studied medicine.^[1] In 1938, while at UCD, he won an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship with Dublin.^[1]

He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Clare–South Galway constituency at the 1969 general election.^[2] He was re-elected at the 1973 general election for the same constituency. He was elected for the Galway West constituency (which at that time surrounded Galway Bay to include North Clare) at the 1977 general election, and was elected for the Clare constituency at the 1981 and February 1982 general elections.^[3] He died in October 1982 shortly before the November 1982 general election.

He was a noted Republican backbencher within Fianna Fáil. He and Síle de Valera were highly critical of the then Taoiseach Jack Lynch, criticism which precipitated Lynch's resignation in 1979. He was also a supporter of the Anti H-Block movement.^[1]

Before his election as a TD, and for a while after, he played the fiddle with The Tulla Céilí Band.^[4]

References