Nuala Fennell:A WOMEN'S rights campaigner in the 1970s, Nuala Fennell, who has died aged 73, became a Fine Gael politician in the 1980s. She served as minister of state for women's affairs and family law reform in the Fine Gael-Labour 1982-87 government.
Paying tribute to her, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said: “During her time as an advocate for women’s rights and as an elected politician for Dublin South, she worked tirelessly on behalf of those she represented and was an outstanding role model.”
Nell McCafferty said she was proud to have known Fennell. “As a junior minister she succeeded in abolishing the concept of illegitimacy, ensuring that every child was recognised as equal in the eyes of the Irish State and that no person would ever be described as a ‘bastard’ again.”
Born in 1935, she was the daughter of Patrick and Elizabeth Campbell. Her father was a garda and after a number of postings in the provinces was transferred to Dublin. He subsequently went into the grocery business in Blackrock.
Fennell was educated at Dundrum national school and the Dominican Convent, Eccles Street. From school she went to work for a Dublin tea importer.
Following her marriage to Brian Fennell, she and her husband lived for a time in Canada. On her return to Ireland, she worked as a freelance journalist writing on social, family and women’s issues.
A founding member of the women’s liberation movement in Ireland, she later quit because it had become “too politicised”.
“Women’s lib has not only lost her virginity, but has turned into a particularly nasty harlot,” she later said.
In 1972 she was among the group of women who founded Action, Information and Motivation (Aim). She was also closely associated with Women’s Aid, Adapt and Cherish. In 1974 her book Irish Marriage – How Are You! was published.
An Independent candidate in the 1977 general election, she secured 3,820 first preference votes but failed to be elected.
One of a number of campaigners for women’s rights attracted to Garret FitzGerald’s Fine Gael in the late 1970s, she stood for the party in the first direct election to the European Parliament in 1979.
Elected to Dáil Éireann for Dublin South in 1981, she held her seat in the two elections that were held during the following 18 months. She was, along with Alan Shatter and John Kelly, one of three Fine Gael TDs in the constituency.
Following the November 1982 election she was appointed as a minister of state. Her role was in effect advisory and most of the small budget allocated was earmarked for the council for the status of women.
In February 1983 she invited 50 women journalists to the Dáil, only to disappoint them with her answers to questions about abortion and divorce. “I vote with the party now,” she told them.
Mary Maher of The Irish Times reflected the mood of her colleagues in an open letter: “Forget public relations, we want some fight in there. The next time you invite us around, we would like to think that you’ve something to say.”
It was one of a number of gaffes she made as a minister. She admitted to being politically naive, “if speaking your mind and being honest is what that means”.
In 1985 she oversaw the publication of a report, Irish Women: Agenda for Action, which recommended the measures necessary to improve the status of women in health, social welfare, family law and employment. Hampered by the fact that her office lacked political clout, she nevertheless launched the mediation scheme for people whose marriages had broken down. She also introduced legislation dealing with domicile and citizenship rights.
She was prominent in the campaign for the removal of the constitutional prohibition on divorce in the first referendum on the issue in 1986. However, the loss of the referendum was a major setback for the government which lost office the following year. She was not returned to the Dáil but was elected to Seanad Éireann.
She continued her involvement in women’s issues through membership of the Oireachtas Committee on Women’s Rights. Re-elected to the Dáil in 1989, she remained on the front bench.
In 1992 she angered some colleagues when she resigned as Fine Gael spokeswoman on women’s affairs, saying she was not free to express herself as she wished.
She added that she took issue with the party’s stance on abortion in the wake of the X Case.
Also in 1992, her home was picketed by members of Youth Defence in the run-up to the abortion referendum. She did not seek re-election at that year’s general election.
Her next endeavour was a public relations and lobbying company Political Communications. She built up a portfolio of clients that included News International, Marks and Spencer and Motorola.
Fennell was a former chairwoman of the Mountjoy prison visiting committee. She was a also a member of the parliamentary society, an group representing former members of the Dáil.
Reflecting in 1993 on her career, she wrote: “After 20 years of active campaigning, both in and out of politics, and even accepting the barren ground from which we began, I feel we deserve to have made greater progress.”
Her husband Brian, son Garrett and daughters Jacqueline and Amanda survive her.
Nuala Fennell: born November 25th, 1935; died August 11th, 2009