James C. Tunney (25 December 1924 – 16 January 2002) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician.
[1] He was born 25 December 1924 in Finglas, Dublin, the fourth child among three sons and five daughters of James Tunney, a farmer and Labour Party TD and senator, and M. Ellen Tunney (née Grimes), who both came from outside Westport, County Mayo.
He worked in the Department of Agriculture from 1943 to 1955 and it was in this period that he studied part-time at University College Dublin, where he took a BA in drama, English, and Irish before studying for a postgraduate qualification in Irish.
A snappy dresser who earned the nickname – the yellow rose of Finglas, he was sometimes seen as pompous, a perception possibly attributable to his acting background, which once led to an audition for Dublin's Abbey Theatre.
He was also chair of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party for ten years.