Spring was born into a working-class family in Tralee, County Kerry. He left school at the age of 14 and began his working life with a series of low-skilled jobs. When he was working at a mill, he became involved in the Irish Transport and General Workers\' Union (ITGWU) and after a while became a trade union official. He married Anna Laide (1919–1997) in 1943.\n', '

Spring first became prominent neither as a politician nor as a trade unionist, but as a Gaelic football player. He was the captain of the Tralee Kerins O\'Rahilly\'s team and captain of the Kerry county side when they won the All-Ireland final in 1940. Through this and his involvement with the ITGWU he became well-known enough to stand in Kerry North for the Labour Party at the 1943 general election. He was elected as the first Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) in Kerry ever and held his seat until he retired in 1981.\n', '

In 1944, Spring was among a group of six TDs who broke away from the Labour Party because it was allegedly infiltrated by communists and formed a new party they called the National Labour Party. The Labour Party and the National Labour Party reunited in 1950, having worked alongside each other in the First Inter-Party Government since 1948.\n', '

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