The Defence portfolio was largely considered a safe and uncontroversial position, so Boland made only a small impact.

As a Minister, he displayed a fáinne (gold ring) on the lapel of his jacket, which indicated that he was able and willing to speak the Irish language.

He remained there until the retirement in 1966 of the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, when Fianna Fáil faced the first leadership contest in its history.

The leadership race immediately erupted as a two-horse battle between Charles Haughey and George Colley.

It was the start of The Troubles in Northern Ireland and Fianna Fáil's policy with regard to the North was coming into question.

On one occasion Boland was alleged to have been so angry that he resigned not only his cabinet position but also his Dáil seat and went home to his farm in County Dublin to make hay.

While there was a lot of booing and clapping in an effort to drown him out, many of his supporters started cheering and chanting "We want Boland."

An enraged Patrick Hillery grabbed his microphone and famously replied, "If you want a fight you can have it … You can have Boland, but you can't have Fianna Fáil."

He made one last attempt to reclaim a Dáil seat, standing unsuccessfully in the Dublin South-West constituency at the 1981 general election.

In 1996, he sued the Irish Independent for libel after a 28 January 1993 article incorrectly stated that he had appeared before the court in the Arms Trial in 1970 and had been dismissed as a Minister by Taoiseach Jack Lynch.