Alderman Jim Kemmy, the Limerick East Labour TD, has been admitted to St James's Hospital, Dublin, with a bone-marrow disorder. For some months he had complained of chest pains but had attributed it to overwork. Two weeks ago, he attended the Regional Hospital and his complaint was diagnosed as multiple myeloma. He attended a specialist in Dublin at the weekend and was immediately admitted to St James's Hospital on Monday.
Last night he said: "This is the first time in 36 years that I have spent a day in bed . . . this bone-marrow disorder has to be tackled and I am confident that I will fight it."
Mr Kemmy, a stonemason by trade, was first elected to the Dail as an Independent in 1981.
He lost his seat in the November 1982 general election but was re-elected in 1987, having rejoined the Labour Party four years later and has been returned to the Dail ever since.
He left the Labour Party in 1972 when he "was convinced that it was not a committed working-class party". His efforts on behalf of the working class in Limerick led to his election to the City Council in June 1974 with a record 1,275 votes, the highest ever recorded by a candidate contesting a local government election in Limerick for the first time.
Mr Kemmy, who is 61 next month, has been chairman of the Labour Party since 1993 and a member of the British Irish Parliamentary Body since that year.
He was twice mayor of Limerick and was the founder in 1982 and president of the Democratic Socialist Party, having been a member of the Labour Party from 1963 to 1972.