Book will have to be put on hold as ‘pioneer’ continues with career

MÁIRE Geoghegan Quinn recently commented that when her current term in the European Court of Auditors ran out in 2012, she would “return to Galway to put my feet up and write a book”.

But, as one of Ireland’s youngest ministers and the first woman to hold a cabinet position since Countess Markiewicz, she was never destined to step out of public life quietly.

Described as a pioneer for Irish women in politics, Máire Geoghegan Quinn was elected to the Dáil in a by-election caused by her father’s death in 1975. She took over the seat Johnny Geoghegan had held in Galway West since 1954.

The teacher was a TD at the age of 25 and at 27 was appointed junior minister at the Department of Industry, Commerce and Energy.

She supported Charlie Haughey in the 1979 Fianna Fáil leadership election and that year, at the age of 29, was appointed to the cabinet post of Minister for the Gaeltacht – the first woman to do so since 1919.

She stayed in cabinet for two years but Haughey kept her out in his second and third terms noting to colleagues that she was lazy and not a great vote-winner.

This later prompted her, along with the current Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, to became part of the so-called “country and western” alliance in Fianna Fáil which forced Haughey to step down to make room for Albert Reynolds as leader.

When Reynolds became Taoiseach in 1992, he rewarded her for her loyalty by appointing her Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications.

A year later, she stepped up to a more senior role as Minister for Justice, a term marked by the historic Downing Street Declaration.

Her most important piece of legislative reform was the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993 seen as a courageous move for a rural TD and something she explained by saying: “I found myself wondering what if it were one of my sons.”

She announced she would challenge Bertie Ahern for the position when Reynolds retired. However, on the day of the vote she withdrew from the contest.

After 22 years in national politics, Geoghegan Quinn stood down ahead of the 1997 general election shortly after newspapers reported that one of her two sons had been expelled from boarding school.

“When politics demands – and wrongly demands – that a TD’s family members serve as expendable extensions of the elected members, I will not serve,” she said in her resignation statement.

But many suspected her motivation was the fear of losing her seat in Galway West, which she never managed to keep safe.

Two years later, then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern appointed her to the European Court of Auditors which keeps an eye on how the EU spends its budget.

It’s not yet known what portfolio she will hold, but she will earn a salary of €240,000 along with her ministerial pension of €60,811.