Patrick Lenihan

Lenihan, Patrick

Patrick Lenihan, trade unionist (b at Kanturk, Ire 11 Apr 1903; d at Calgary 4 Mar 1981). He was a member of the Sinn Féin movement engaged in rebellious activities against British rule in Ireland. In the 1930s he organized workers, farmers and unemployed throughout Alberta. He was elected as a Calgary alderman in 1938, running on the communist slate. Interned for 2 years in 1940 for opposition to WWII, in the mid-1940s he became a city labourer in Calgary and eventually president of the Civic Employees Union. He was instrumental in the formation of the National Union of Public Employees and became its president in 1956. NUPE was one of the predecessor unions of today's CANADIAN UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES. On his retirement in 1968 he was western Canadian director of CUPE.