Joe Doyle

Joseph "Joe" Doyle (27 June 1936 – 8 August 2009) was an Irish Fine Gael politician. He was a long-standing public representative for the Dublin South-East constituency. He served variously as a Dublin City Council, Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, becoming Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1998–1999.

Doyle, a former sacristan in the local Roman Catholic church in Donnybrook, was first elected to public office as a Dublin City Council for the Pembroke area at the successful Fine Gael 1979 local elections campaign that laid the groundwork for Fine Gael's winning of 20 extra Dáil seats at the 1981 general election. He served continually in City Hall from 1979 until his retirement at the 2004 local elections. Between 1998 and 1999 he served as Lord Mayor of Dublin.

Doyle was first elected as a Fine Gael Teachta Dála (TD) to Dáil Éireann at the November 1982 general election, where his party constituency colleague was party leader (and after the election Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald).

Doyle achieved early party notoriety when in 1983 he was one of eight Fine Gael TDs to defy the party and vote against the Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition's proposed wording to the Pro-life constitutional amendment on abortion. Whereas the government's wording included a negative prohibition, namely that nothing in the constitution should be interpreted as granting a right to abortion, Doyle, along with Alice Glenn and other colleagues endorsed the Fianna Fáil alternative wording that granted a "right to life to the unborn, with due regard to the equal right of the mother". Because of the controversial nature of the issue, and the fact that Fine Gael itself was split on the issue, he was not sacked from the party for breaking the party whip.

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