Jim Kemmy

Early and personal life Kemmy was born 14 September 1936 in O'Curry Street, Limerick, the eldest of three sons and two daughters of Michael Kemmy and Elizabeth Kemmy . The family later moved to the Garryowen area of the city. His father's death from tuberculosis meant that he had to leave school at 15 for a stonemason apprenticeship to support his four siblings.

Political career In 1963, Kemmy joined the Labour Party and worked as a trade unionist. He was a member of the party's National Administrative Council, and its Director of Elections in 1969. He resigned from the party in 1972 because of conflict with local Labour TD Stephen Coughlan.

In 1975 Kemmy founded the Limerick Family Planning Clinic. At the time, it was illegal to sell condoms in Ireland and the clinic was condemned by the Catholic Church.

Kemmy stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for Dáil Éireann in the Limerick East constituency at the 1977 general election. His second attempt, at the 1981 general election, was successful, and he was elected to the 22nd Dáil. During this time Kemmy criticised the 1981 Irish hunger strike which earned him the animosity of many Irish republicans and socialists as well as a number of his fellow trade unionists.

Kemmy was re-elected as a Labour Party TD at the 1992 general election and again at the 1997 general election. After the merger, Kemmy was elected vice-chairman of the Labour Party in 1991 and chairman in 1993. He was twice elected Mayor of Limerick, from 1991 to 1992 and again from 1995 to 1996.

Kemmy was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1997. He died on 25 September 1997, following a short illness. He was buried in Mount St Lawrence cemetery, Limerick, after a secular funeral ceremony. The city council had proposed in 1999 to name a new bridge after Kemmy, but it was renamed the Abbey Bridge. In 2000 the Limerick City Museum was renamed the Jim Kemmy Municipal Museum. The Jim Kemmy Papers are housed at the Glucksman Library, University of Limerick.