Labour launches bursary to help promote female candidates

THE Labour Party launched a bursary for aspiring women politicians within the party in memory of the late deputy Eileen Desmond yesterday.

The Cork Labour TD was the first woman to hold a senior Cabinet post since the foundation of the State. She served as Health and Social Welfare Minister in the 1980s and then became an MEP.

The Eileen Desmond Leadership Bursary will be presented annually to an aspiring woman candidate for the Labour Party in Dáil, Seanad or local elections. The aim of the €1,000 bursary is to help aspiring politicians to get training and promote the policy of increasing the number of women candidates. Deputy leader Liz McManus and the party’s chairwoman, Breeda Moynihan Cronin, launched the bursary at Leinster House yesterday to coincide with International Women’s Day.

“The late Eileen Desmond was and remains and inspiration to women within the Labour movement and she left an enduring legacy to the party,” Ms McManus said. She added the could have no better role model or inspiration.

The late Eileen Desmond’s daughter, councillor Paula Desmond said she was honoured for her mother and this bursary was something she would have been very proud of.

“Mum had a huge commitment towards helping women who were suffering inequality and to advancing justice,” she said. Her mother was committed to helping women get ahead in politics and the bursary was a tribute to that, she said.