Jones, Gerard (‘Gerry’) (1919–99), civil servant, company director, and political activist, was born 15 June 1919 in Bandon, Co. Cork, seventh child of Timothy Jones, of Bandon, builder and company director, and Mary Jones (née Keon). Educated at Rockwell College, Cashel, Co. Tipperary (1931–4), and Presentation College, Cork (1934–7), he entered the civil service straight from school. Initially working at the Department of Local Government (1937–40) he later moved to the Department of Defence (1940–44). He finally worked at the Department of Justice (1944–50) before leaving the civil service to set up his own shipping and engineering business with his brothers Christopher and John. At its peak the Jones Group employed more than 8,000 people. He also held a number of other directorships including Dublin Shipping Ltd, Irish Hotels Ltd, H. A. O'Neill Ltd, Climate Engineering Ltd, John Jones Ltd, Concast Ltd, and Irish Shipping Ltd.
In addition to his career in business he was active within the Fianna Fáil party as a member of the influential fundraising TACA group and through his seat (1950s–1960s) on the national executive of the party, through which he became friendly with Neil Blaney (qv). Jones, who was immediately recognisable by his eye patch, most admired Blaney for his unwavering and vocal views on the partition question, and worked closely with Blaney and his electoral machine, known as ‘the Donegal Mafia’, on numerous by-elections such as that in Kildare (1964), which unexpectedly saw the Fianna Fáil candidate, Terry Boylan, win the seat. During the initial stages of the troubles he visited Northern Ireland with Blaney (1970) to distribute £100,000 that had been sanctioned by the dáil for the relief of the nationalist population. The public accounts committee of the dáil subsequently found that, of the £100,000, £32,000 was unaccounted for in Belfast and £32,000 had been spent on purchasing arms in Germany. Jones said that he was unaware if money had been used for arms, but added that ‘you feed somebody who's hungry lest they die of starvation . . . Why not buy a gun for them to protect themselves from the killer’ (Rafter, 64).
On 28 May 1970 Blaney and four others were arrested on suspicion of a conspiracy to import arms illegally into the state. Jones paid £5,000 bail for Blaney, against whom the charges were subsequently dropped (2 July 1970). Jones's visible support for Blaney during the trials (May–October 1970), which earned him the nickname of ‘Blaney's shadow’, eroded his influence within Fianna Fáil. As a result his directorship (1965–72) of Irish Shipping Ltd was not renewed by the taoiseach, Jack Lynch (qv). Despite the sidelining of the Blaney wing of the party, Jones continued actively to support a united Ireland. During a speech (1984) to commemorate the Kilmichael ambush he called for the resignation of the then taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald (qv), because of his policy on Northern Ireland.
Apart from his business and political careers he was involved in charitable work as life governor of the Royal Hospital for Incurables, Putney, London, and patron life governor of the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook, Dublin. He was also honorary Belgian consul in Ireland. He married (1956) Bridget Josephine, daughter of Patrick Brooder, dentist, of Dublin; they had two sons and two daughters. For many years they lived at Lisheens, Rathfarnham, Dublin. However, in 1985 he moved to London permanently, where he enrolled as a student with the Academy of Fine Arts. He died 21 October 1999.