‘I was always a politician first and a woman second … if I could prove myself as a woman that a woman could do this job as well if not better than a lot of men, this was the best practical demonstration of what the women’s movement could achieve. ‘
Taken from: Mary Banotti, There’s Something About Mary, Currach Press, 2008.
MINISTER FOR THE GAELTACHT
DECEMBER 1979 - JUNE 1981
MINISTER FOR TOURISM, TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
(February 1992 - January 1993)
MINISTER FOR JUSTICE
(January 1993 – December 1994)
Minister for the Gaeltacht
(December 1979 - June 1981)
Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications
(February 1992 - January 1993).
Appointed by Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, her appointment was ground breaking, she later recalled: ‘It’s important that women aren’t always slotted into caring ministries.’
After Politics Máire was awarded an Honorary Doctorate, NUI Galway (June 2014) and the Transatlantic Leadership Award - European Institute Washington DC (2014)
In 1999 Máire was nominated by the Government as the Irish Member of the European Court of Auditors, the body responsible for checking that the EU's budget is implemented correctly. She served two terms from 2000-2010.
Máire was the first Irish woman EU Commissioner from 2010-2014. Allocated the Research and Innovation Portfolio, which included the EU research budget of €58 billion, increasing to €80 billion during her tenure.
She was responsible for setting up the Horizon 2020 funding for research, science and innovation, which needed the support of EU Governments, for her success with this - she was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur.
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn was born on 5 September 1950 in Carna (50 km west of Galway city). Christened Mary, she was always known as Máire, the Irish version of her name.
Her father Johnny Geoghegan was a native of Oughterard, her mother Barbara Folan was teaching in Carna when they met, so the couple settled there. Her mother had to give up work because of the marriage bar.
Máire had a sibling, a younger brother who was 4 years her junior, born the year her father was elected as a TD for the Galway West Dáil Éireann Constituency.
Máire recalls her upbringing in what she describes as ‘a very political household.’ Her earliest memories of her father rising early to go to Dublin, he was away from Tuesday to Thursday.
Johnny Geoghegan entered politics as a Fianna Fáil Councillor, before being elected a TD in 1954 (for the 15th Dáil) for the Galway West Constituency. He was elected in the five subsequent General Elections, gaining ministerial office when Máire was 20 (as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare, Joseph Brennan TD).
He served in Ministerial office until Fianna Fáil lost power in the 1973 General Election. By that time, the family had moved to Galway City – while Máire was attending Carysfort Teacher Training College (in Blackrock, County Dublin).
Her father was by then unwell, he had a heart attack and was hospitalised in 1973. Returning to the Dáil, Máire assisted him on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday afternoons with ‘getting the letters and representations out’.
When Johnny Geoghegan was unable to attend his constituency clinic, Máire would act for him, attending his clinic in the ‘Hole in the Wall’ pub (Eyre Street, Galway). Her father had a further two heart attacks, recalling later ‘we had warnings’ but it was still ‘a major shock’ and ‘traumatic’ when he died on 5 January 1975.
Máire’s secondary school education was through Irish, first in Carna and later as a boarder at the Mercy Convent, Cólaiste Muire, in Tourmakeady in County Mayo. There, she was a good student who contemplated studying medicine, and also became a skilled debater.
Her mother wanted Máire to be a teacher and she did, as she later recalled ‘exactly as she told me.’
Máire's teaching career began in 1969 in Scoil Bhríde (Ranelagh, Dublin).
Following her engagement to John Quinn and he being offered employment in Galway, Máire relocated to a new school in Renmore, Galway.
Despite early aspirations to enter political life, Máire decided at this point that ‘politics were not going to be for me’.
The couple married in 1973 and their first child Ruairí was born in 1974.
Máire was first elected as a TD for Galway West in the by-election of March 1975 . On the same day, as she was elected to her father’s seat, one of her fellow Renmore teachers was also elected. Michael Kitt (also born in 1950) was elected for Fianna Fáil in the Galway East constituency, previously held by his father Michael Kitt (first elected in 1948).
Taoiseach Jack Lynch appointed Máire as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy. A post she held from 1977 to 1981. The title of the post was changed to Minister of State at the Department Industry, Commerce and Energy. She had special responsibility for Consumer Affairs.
Máire later recalled that she first addressed the Seanad on the Consumer Information Bill and that ‘I learned more during the discussion … about the law … The debate in the Dáil was fast and furious and there were so many items on the agenda … in the Seanad there was a possibility to tease out the legislation.’ She did what ‘few of my predecessors’ had done, she accepted the Seanad’s amendments.
Her second son Cormac was born in July 1979. Máire worked up until the week before his birth. ‘He travelled the countryside with me. Every Tuesday morning I packed Cormac, carry cot and nappies into the car.’
It would be an incident relating to the same child, when he was publicly named that was the ‘last straw’ and Máire retired from the Dáil at the 1997 Election. As she later recounted; ‘I feel strongly then, and still do, that families of politicians are not fair game for media intrusion.’ Mary Banotti, There's something about Mary, Currach Press, 2008.