William Sheldon, who died on November 1st, aged 92, had the distinction of being the Independent Protestant TD on whom Eamon de Valera depended for an overall majority during the minority FF ail government of 1951-1954.
He had a parliamentary career spanning 30 years. First elected in the former four-seater Donegal East constituency in 1943, he was returned in every general election by the rural Protestant community until Donegal was split into two three-seater constituencies - North East and South West - in 1961, when he decided not to stand. He was active in the Church of Ireland, serving on the Select Vestry of St Eunan's Cathedral in Raphoe, Co Donegal, and on the Diocesan Council of Derry and Raphoe. At different periods, he was honorary lay secretary to the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, and, in 1982, was the legal assessor to the former Primate, the late Dr John Armstrong, when a bill to enable women to become deacons was withdrawn amid controversy. Born in Derry, he attended Foyle College before studying mathematics and science in Queen's University, Belfast. He moved to Raphoe, where he met his wife, Margaret Jean Whyte, who predeceased him by five years.
A year later he contested the seat held by the Independent TD, Major James Myles, as a member of Clann na Talmhan, which represented small farmer interests. He switched allegiance to the Farmer's Party, which represented larger farmers, in 1944, but from 1948 ran as an independent. He supported the first Inter-Party government, formed in 1948, until 1950, following John A. Costello's declaration of the Republic and what William Sheldon described as a "gradual but definite approach to a system of State Socialism".
ail Public Accounts Committee, and was chairman of it for many years. He became an admirer of Sean Lemass, who nominated him to the Seanad in 1961 and 1965. A former chairman of the Dail Public Accounts Committee, the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Council of Europe, he retired in 1973.
William Sheldon: born 1907; died November, 1999