Donal Creed

Who is Donal Creed?

Donal Creed is a retired Irish Fine Gael party politician from Macroom in County Cork, who served as a Teachta Dála for 22 years and as a junior government minister in the 1980s.

He first stood as a candidate for Dáil Éireann at a by-election in March 1965 for the Cork Mid constituency following the death of the Labour Party TD Dan Desmond. The by-election was won by Desmond's widow Eileen, but at the 1965 general election in April that year Creed won the 4th seat in the four-seat constituency.

Creed was re-elected at seven further general elections, switching in 1981 to the new Cork North–West constituency when Cork Mid was abolished in boundary changes. From 1973 to 1977 he served as one of Ireland's first Members of the European Parliament, before MEPs were directly elected. Creed served on three of the European Parliament's committees: Agriculture, Public Health and the Environment, Regional Policy and Transport. He was also Chairman of Cork County Council from 1978 to 1979.