Nolan, Thomas (‘Tom’) (1921–92), politician and businessman, was born 27 July 1921 in Cappawater, Myshall, Co. Carlow, son of Matthew Nolan, farmer, and Bridget Nolan (née Murphy). Educated at Myshall national school and De La Salle College, Bagenalstown, after completing his leaving certificate in 1940 he joined the army as a private, and was commissioned as second lieutenant in 1942. Demobilised in 1946, he remained in the army reserve, with the rank of captain, until his appointment to the seanad in 1961. On leaving the army he established a confectionery wholesale distribution business.
Entering politics in 1955 when he was elected to Bagenalstown town commission, he was narrowly defeated in the 1961 general election as a Fianna Fáil candidate for Carlow–Kilkenny, after which he was nominated to Seanad Éireann by the taoiseach, Seán Lemass (qv). Elected to Dáil Éireann in 1965 when he topped the poll in Carlow–Kilkenny, he held the seat until February 1982. From 1969 to 1973 he was a member of the dáil public accounts committee. An MEP from 1973 to 1979, he was defeated by Labour's Liam Kavanagh for the third seat in the Leinster constituency in the first direct elections to the European parliament in 1979. He was a staunch supporter of Charles Haughey from the 1960s; his loyalty was rewarded when he was appointed junior minister at the Department of Health and Social Welfare, with particular responsibility for children, in March 1980, and promoted to minister for labour in December 1980, although he only held the post until July 1981, when the government fell.
His support for Haughey led to strong rivalry with his constituency colleague Jim Gibbons (qv), one of Haughey's main opponents within Fianna Fáil. In the 1981 general election Nolan claimed the last seat in Carlow–Kilkenny from Gibbons in very controversial circumstances after a box of 176 uncounted ballots from Rathanna in Carlow were discovered, containing enough votes to elect him. Although Gibbons questioned the legality of allowing the inclusion of an unsealed and unguarded ballot box, Nolan was elected after a recount. However, Gibbons overturned the result at the next general election in February 1982, taking the seat from Nolan, who then retired from national politics. Active in local politics as a member and chairman of Bagenalstown (Muine Bheag) town commission and Carlow county council, he was also a member and vice-president of the Organisation of National Ex-Servicemen and Women (ONE), a member of the Catholic Young Men's Society (CYMS), and involved in the Carlow hospice movement.
He married Peggy Doran of Ballymurphy, Borris, Co. Carlow. They had six sons and four daughters and lived at Station Road, Bagenalstown, where he died suddenly 17 August 1992.