Paul O'Dwyer
| Paul O'Dwyer | |
|---|---|
| President of the New York City Council | |
|
In office 1974–1977 |
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| Preceded by | Sanford Garelik |
| Succeeded by | Carol Bellamy |
Peter Paul O'Dwyer (June 29, 1907 – June 23, 1998) was an Irish-born American politician and lawyer and the younger brother of Mayor William O'Dwyer and father to New York City lawyer Brian O'Dwyer.
O'Dwyer was born in Bohola, County Mayo, Ireland, and emigrated to Brooklyn, New York in 1925. He became a United States citizen in 1930. During World War II he was a staunchly vehement opponent of American involvement in the war and traveled the United States (until Pearl Harbor) to speak with and rally pro-neutrality (particularly Irish-American) groups. As a lawyer some of his more renowned cases were those involving people accused of Communist activities. Active in the National Lawyers Guild, he became its president in 1947 and served on its national board from 1948-51. He supported both constitutionalist and physical force Irish nationalist initiatives. His influence protected several Irish Republican Army gunmen from deportation, including "The Fort Worth Five" and Vincent Conlon.
Active in New York City politics, O'Dwyer ran for political office several times. In 1948, he narrowly lost an election for the U.S. House of Representatives to incumbent Jacob K. Javits. He was elected to the city council from a seat representing all of Manhattan for a term from 1963-65. He also gained election to the position of New York City Council President, which was then one of three city-wide elected positions. He served in that capacity from 1974 to 1977. In ten other races he was unsuccessful.
In 1968, running in opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, he won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator from New York, but lost in the general election to the Republican incumbent Jacob K. Javits. In 1970, he ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator against Ted Sorensen, Richard Ottinger and Max McCarthy, but was defeated by Ottinger. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate that was won by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1976.
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