Eddie Bohan

Edward Joseph "Eddie" Bohan (born County Longford, 23 November 1932)^[1] is an Irish former politician and member of the Fianna Fáil party. He is an auctioneer and publican, a former President of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, and a former chairman of Dublin Licensed Vintners. He was elected to the 18th Seanad in 1987 by the Industrial and Commercial Panel, and was returned to the Seanad in subsequent elections until he retired in 2007.^[1][2]

Eddie Bohan was born on a small farm near the village of Drumlish, Co.Longford on the 23rd of November 1932 the third of seven children to James and Bridget Bohan. At age 15 he left for Dublin to join his two older brothers and started working in a grocers shop in the city. As he learned the retail trade he became involved in the confectionery business and by age 19 had a few vans on the road and a small factory producing sweets and fancy goods.

At 23 he married Elizabeth Lambert from Rathmines and like many other young couples struggling in the Ireland of the 1950s they decided to emigrate to North America and spent about 6 years living in Los Angeles where Eddie became involved with the motor trade, starting off working for Chevron in a gas station and progressing to owning 3 stations of his own by the time he was leaving specialising in auto sales and repairs.

On returning to Dublin and now with 3 of his 4 children born, he entered into a new career path by buying his first licensed premises, Bohans of Meath St. he would go on to buy and run a number of well known Dublin pubs over the years very successfully. During this period he became Chairman of the Licensed Vintners Association who nominated him to run for election on the commercial and industrial panel in the 1986 Seanad elections where he won the first of his 5 election campaigns holding a seat for over 20 years.

Throughout his business career he was also involved in the property industry, establishing an estate agency practice in 1969 which still trades today as Bohan Hyland where his son Eddie Jr is involved. Although retired from business and politics now Eddie Bohan still leads a very active life with many interests, particularly national hunt racing where he is involved in a couple of successful syndicates with a few friends and trainer Noel Meade.

Eddie is still married to Elizabeth (Betty) and living in Rathgar for over 40 years now close to his children and grandchildren.

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