Jesse Scheckner
The U.S. and Florida flags will fly at half-staff Saturday in honor of Andy Ireland, a former Congressman and Winter Haven City Commissioner who died last month.
Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the flag-lowering in a memo to Florida Director of Real Estate Management and Development Brian Fienemann, Polk County Commission Chair Bill Braswell and Winter Haven Mayor Nathaniel Birdsong Jr.
Ireland, DeSantis wrote, “dedicated himself to serving his country and consistently working to improve the lives of his constituents.”
Flags to be flown at half-staff include those at the State Capitol, the Polk County Courthouse in Winter Haven and the Winter Haven City Hall.
Ireland was born in Cincinnati on Aug. 23, 1930. His work in banking took him to Florida, where he joined Barnett National Bank in Jacksonville and later became President, Chair and CEO of American National Bank in Winter Haven.
He served from 1966 to 1968 on the City Commission, where he and others successfully courted the Boston Red Sox to relocate their Spring Training to Winter Haven. The team stayed there until 1992.
In 1976, he was elected to Congress, where he served as a Democrat until 1984. Then he switched to the Republican Party, explaining he’d been turned off by the Democratic Party’s leftward lurch.
“I didn’t leave the Democratic Party,” he said in a speech announcing the change. “The Democratic Party left me.”
Notably, Ireland switched parties before the 1984 election, a move that earned him plaudits from his colleagues.
“One of the things that a lot of party-switchers do is they wait until after the election, so they can’t be voted out,” Bill Rufty, a retired political editor for The Ledger, told the outlet last month. “Andy was so honest about it that he went ahead and announced his party switch from Democrat to Republican a few months before the election.”
He then served four terms as a member of the GOP representing Florida’s 10th Congressional District before retiring in 1993. His legislation frequently centered on national security, finance, tax issues and protecting small businesses. He served on the International Relations, Small Business, Armed Services and Intelligence committees, according to his LinkedIn page.
After retiring and moving to Boca Grande, he supported the construction of the Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk City, according to his obituary. He also served on several boards, including those for the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium and the Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association.
Ireland died on Oct. 20 in Sarasota. He was 94. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Nancy Haydock Ireland, four children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
