Donegan, Patrick Sarsfield (‘Paddy’, ‘P. S.’) (1923–2000), politician, farmer, publican, and businessman, was born 29 October 1923 at Monasterboice, Co. Louth, son of Thomas Francis Donegan, publican and farmer, and Rose Ann Donegan (née Butterly). He was educated at Fieldstown and Tenure national schools, Drogheda CBS, and St Vincent's college, Castleknock, Co. Dublin. After working as a buyer of malting barley for Guinness, he bought and successfully developed a seed merchant's and milling company. His extensive farming interests included the breeding of Belgian Blue and Limousin cattle, at a time when continental breeds were new to Ireland. Also engaged in the licensed trade, he was proprietor over many years of the Monasterboice Inn, where he would join the popular Tony Chambers orchestra on the bongo drums.
Bypassing the customary apprenticeship on local government bodies prior to a career in national politics, Donegan was elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt, commencing a non-consecutive tenure of twenty-three years as Fine Gael TD for Louth (1954–7, 1961–81). Elected the following year to Louth county council (1955–73; chairman, 1967–73), he replaced his father, who stood down. He served on Louth county committee of agriculture (1956–73), as an alderman on Drogheda borough council (1956–73), on Drogheda harbour board (1956–8), and on the North Eastern Health Board (1971–3). After losing his dáil seat in 1957, despite increasing his first-preference vote, he was returned to Seanad Éireann on the agricultural panel (1957–61). He reentered the dáil in 1961, elected to the second seat on the first count, and held his seat through four subsequent general elections, topping the poll in both 1965 and 1969. He served on the Fine Gael front bench as spokesman on agriculture (1961–6), and on industry and commerce (1966–73). In 1969 he was fined £20 at Drogheda district court after pleading guilty to having fired a shotgun over travellers' caravans at Newtown, Monasterboice, attempting to terrorise the occupants into leaving the site.
A steadfast supporter and close political friend of Liam Cosgrave, Donegan demonstrated his loyalty when Cosgrave's leadership of the party was threatened during the crisis within Fine Gael over the Fianna Fáil government's Offences against the State (Amendment) Bill of 1972, widely criticised as a draconian threat to civil liberties. At the eleventh hour, Donegan was the only member of the parliamentary party still backing Cosgrave, who supported the legislation and seemed prepared to vote against his party in the dáil division – an outcome that was obviated when, as the dáil debated, two loyalist bombs exploded in Dublin city centre, killing two persons and injuring 127; in the transformed political context, Fine Gael TDs dropped their opposition to the bill (1 December 1972). Though suffering a decline in his personal vote in the February 1973 general election, and returned to the third Louth seat, Donegan was rewarded by Cosgrave with a senior cabinet portfolio in the Fine Gael–Labour coalition government. As minister for defence (1973–6), he was involved in the formulation and implementation of security policy during a period of intense paramilitary activity in both Northern Ireland and the republic. Two weeks after assuming office, he enjoyed a major publicity coup when the Irish naval service, tipped off by British intelligence, intercepted an arms-running vessel, the Claudia, in Irish territorial waters off Co. Waterford (28 March 1973), seizing 500 tons of Russian-made matériel supplied by Col. Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, and arresting six persons, including IRA chief-of-staff Joe Cahill (qv) (1920–2004). From a base in Cork city, Donegan closely monitored the combined land-and-sea operation, which he outlined in triumphant detail to the world's broadcast and print media at a press conference the following day; disclosing the decision not to press charges against the Claudia's German captain and crew, he said that they had been given ‘a boot up the transom’ and ordered out of Irish waters.
Identified with Fine Gael's right wing, unsympathetic to the ‘just society’ agenda associated with party liberals such as Garret FitzGerald (qv), Donegan held hard-line attitudes toward IRA subversion and broader issues of crime and law enforcement, thereby exemplifying the image of the Cosgrave government as being tough on law and order. He oversaw expansion of the defence forces to an unprecedented level of peacetime strength in both personnel and equipment; tightening of border security; construction of new, and improvement of existing, barracks; and increases in army pay, including augmented allowances for personnel engaged in border duties. A keen horseman, he took a special interest in the army jumping team.
Donegan's predilection for blunt speech precipitated a constitutional crisis that gravely damaged Cosgrave's government. In response to the IRA assassination (21 July 1976) of the British ambassador, Christopher Ewart-Biggs (qv), the government announced a state of emergency, and carried an emergency powers bill, increasing from two to seven days the period that a person could be detained by gardaí without charge. President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (qv), after consultation with the council of state, referred the bill to the supreme court to test its constitutionality; after a favourable ruling, he duly signed the bill into law (16 October). Two days later, Donegan, speaking at the opening of an army canteen at Columb barracks, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, vehemently denounced Ó Dálaigh's referral of the bill to the supreme court, asserted that the ‘army must stand behind the state’, and described Ó Dálaigh – who, as president, was titular commander-in-chief of the defence forces – as ‘a thundering disgrace’ (a phrase which was probably a journalistic euphemism for cruder language). In the ensuing political storm, Cosgrave refused Donegan's offer to resign; denied an audience by Ó Dálaigh, Donegan tendered him a written apology. During a dáil debate on a Fianna Fáil motion calling for Donegan's dismissal, Cosgrave exacerbated the situation by asserting that Donegan had made ‘a serious comment on what the president did in a disrespectful way’. The next day (22 October) Ó Dálaigh resigned, citing his obligation to assert his personal integrity, and to uphold the independence and dignity of the office of president. Donegan denied rumours (repeated subsequently by a ministerial colleague, Conor Cruise O'Brien) that intoxication had fuelled his intemperate remarks, claiming that he had been ‘like a zombie’ from the effects of concussion suffered in a car accident the previous night, and that he was distressed over the recent murder of a garda by the IRA, who had exploited the delay in introducing the emergency legislation.
Demoted in a cabinet reshuffle, Donegan became minister for lands (December 1976–February 1977), before being shifted to the new cabinet post of minister for fisheries (February–June 1977), at a critical point in negotiations with Brussels over an Irish ban on large fishing vessels, ostensibly as a conservation measure, but deemed discriminatory by the EEC commission. While the June 1977 general election was fought largely over economic issues, the Donegan affair contributed to the erosion of public confidence in the government's competence, and contributed to the landslide Fianna Fáil victory. Donegan nonetheless was one of only two outgoing ministers (Garret FitzGerald being the other) to increase their personal vote, his first-preference tally of 9,455 being the highest of his career. Alienated from the prevailing policies of Fine Gael under the new leadership of FitzGerald, he declined to contest the 1981 general election.
Donegan married (1956) Olivia Noel Macken; they had two sons and two daughters. His residence was St Etchen's, Monasterboice. His recreations were sailing, shooting, and hunting. A member of both the Louth and Ward Union hunts, he also belonged to the Stephen's Green Club, the Irish Cruising Club, Boyne Yacht Club, Drogheda Rugby Club, and Dundalk AFC. He died at his home after a long illness on 26 November 2000.