Reformer who brought about real change
Born in 1923 in Spanish Point, Co Clare, he was a doctor by training, having followed his father into the medical profession. He began practising in Miltown Malbay after qualifying from UCD, and later acted as coroner for west Clare.
As Taoiseach Bertie Ahern noted earlier this week that Dr Hillery’s early days in politics were closely associated with two of Ireland’s most legendary political figures.
It was at Eamon de Valera’s behest that Dr Hillery first stood for election in 1951 as his running mate in Clare. Dr Hillery was elected and eight years later was promoted to cabinet by de Valera’s successor, Seán Lemass.
Before then, however, there had been another notable development in Dr Hillery’s life — his marriage to a fellow doctor, Maeve Finnegan, in 1955.
His promotion in 1959 saw him appointed minister for education and, during his time in the position, he introduced state subsidies for national schools and reduced class sizes. Crucially, he focused the government on the notion of equal opportunity in education, progress which would be built upon by Donogh O’Malley.
In 1965, Dr Hillery was appointed minister for industry and commerce, and his tenure there, though short-lived, was well regarded. Indeed, so impressed was he by Dr Hillery that Seán Lemass invited the Clare man to stand for the leadership of Fianna Fáil following his resignation. Dr Hillery declined, however, and was appointed minister for labour — essentially a reconfiguration of his old portfolio — under the new taoiseach, Jack Lynch.
In 1969, he was appointed minister for external [foreign] affairs, and was part of the team that negotiated Ireland’s entry into the European Economic Community [EEC].
But the outbreak of the troubles in the north in 1969 made external affairs a hugely difficult, even traumatic, portfolio. Dr Hillery, however, won praise for the manner in which he handled it, President McAleese this week saying he played “a pivotal role in the attempt to have that escalating conflict in Northern Ireland contained and ended”.
The troubles, of course, led to internal conflict in Fianna Fáil, which came to a head during the arms crisis and led to one of Dr Hillery’s most famous moments.
In the upheaval that followed the arms crisis, Dr Hillery had replaced Kevin Boland as national secretary. As Dr Hillery spoke at the party’s 1971 ard fheis, Boland supporters heckled him with chants of: “We want Kevin Boland.”
Dr Hillery famously responded: “You can have Boland, but you can’t have Fianna Fáil.”
Following the conclusion of the negotiations for entry into the EEC, Dr Hillery became Ireland’s first European commissioner in 1973, and while in that role, helped introduce equal pay for women throughout the member states.
In 1976, he returned from Brussels to become president following the shock resignation of Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh.
He held firm to his core principles in 1982 when refusing entreaties from Fianna Fáil not to dissolve the Dáil. This refusal to bow to pressure from his own party is seen as one of the defining moments of his career. He was re-appointed president in 1983, and resigned from public life upon the conclusion of that term in 1990.
He is survived by his wife Maeve and son John.
1951 — 1973: Member of Dáil Eireann
1959 — 1965: Minister for Education
1965 — 1966: Minister for Industry, Commerce
1966 — 1969: Minister for Labour
1969 — 1973: Minister for External Affairs
1973 — 1976: European Commissioner
1976 — 1990: President of Ireland.
Dr Hillery’s nephew Fr Des Hillery recalled during the requiem mass how one of the former president’s guiding principles came from the writings of French Jesuit priest and philosopher Teilhard de Chardin, and he read:
“There’s no place for the immobilist,
“There’s no place for the sceptics,
“There’s no place for the weary,
“There’s no place for the sad of heart.
“Life is ceaseless discovery,
“Life is movement.”
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