Brian Lenihan; Former Foreign Minister of Ireland, Political Leader

Brian Lenihan, 64, former foreign minister of Ireland and contender for president. The runner-up in Ireland’s last presidential election, Lenihan was a key politician for four decades and a leader in his party, Fianna Fail. He was foreign minister three times in the 1970s and 1980s and was deputy prime minister from 1987 to 1989 in the government of Prime Minister Charles J. Haughey. Born in Dundalk, County Louth, Lenihan was elected to the Dail, the lower house of the Irish Parliament, in 1961 and was first named to the Cabinet as minister for justice in 1964. In addition to his political work, Lenihan wrote book reviews and articles on Irish history. He received a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic in the United States in 1989. On Wednesday in Dublin of a liver ailment.