Nóirín Slattery: NÓIRÍN SLATTERY was the eldest of a family of four girls and four boys and was reared in Waterford city where her father owned a family drapery store.
She was proud of her family connections, and while Waterford was her home she also had a particular love for her father's home county, Tipperary.
Her early career saw Nóirín as a clerical assistant in Waterford Glass. But Waterford was too confining for such a free spirit. Nóirín moved to Dublin and in 1961 she secured a position as clerical assistant with the Irish Management Institute (IMI) under managing director Ivor Kenny.
The IMI was then a male preserve. But here was a woman who heard about the glass ceiling for women but refused to be deterred. Within a short time she was promoted to administration manager, a position which took many varied forms and imposed many different responsibilities over the next 30 years as the IMI gradually evolved into what it is today.
Nóirín had great memories of this period and retained the friendship and admiration of many of those who came to know and respect her then.
In his book Last Word . . . a Life Working with Managers, Ivor Kenny summarises her involvement in organising the IMI conferences in Killarney, which at that time were regarded as the debating chamber for setting the general direction of Irish business.
"A national conference for 500 required meticulous organisation and attention to 1,000 details. That is where Nóirín Slattery shone. Over the years she wrote a bible for the conference - what, where and, most important, when everything had to be in place. She built a team, every member of which knew exactly what was to be expected of them. It was good to see how they handled cranky businessmen after the weary drive to Killarney."
Having involved herself in Fianna Fáil, her talent for solid organisation and deep common sense became recognised by senior figures in that party. She had a short encounter in electoral politics when she stood for that party in the 1977 general election in the then Dublin/Rathmines constituency. During this period she was particularly close to taoiseach Jack Lynch and minister George Colley and served on a number of inner-sanctum committees of the party.
Like many others in that party, the Haughey era proved to be a step too far in a direction that failed to typify the Fianna Fáil that she loved, and when Des O'Malley and others formed the Progressive Democrats in 1986, she became a trusted foot soldier and senior figure in that party.
On retirement she became a great example of what active retirement really means because for the next 15 years Nóirín worked daily as a volunteer in the Progressive Democrats' head office. She was later appointed a party trustee under the leadership of Mary Harney, a title she retained until her death. She also became central to the party organisation in Dublin South East, the local constituency of Michael McDowell. She brought her well-recognised talents for meticulous organisation to party head office.
Potential and seasoned politicians were anxious to avail of her wise counsel, her incisive mind and her immense professional skill. Hanging beside her desk was a photograph of one of her heroes, president Éamon de Valera, in deep conversation with her on a visit to Áras an Uachtaráin. Beside her desk also was a portrait of her more immediate hero, Des O'Malley. To her O'Malley epitomised the respect for the institutions of the State which every true republican harbours. She was particularly proud of his "I stand by the Republic" speech on his departure from Fianna Fáil, as he set about the establishment of the Progressive Democrats.
Nóirín loved life. She loved Ireland and Irish culture. She had a particular grá for the language. She never married but, as she said herself, she had her own family and a second family in her colleagues and friends in party head office. Those who worked under her tutelage learned of her absolute respect for authority and her defence of work colleagues to the last. Criticism of party head office was not to be tolerated. Her disappointment was kept for those who failed to appreciate the value of good party organisation because for Nóirín organisation was what politics was about.
Young and old loved to engage her in conversation and political debate. She loved nothing better than good company and being so well-read, she was a most interesting conversationalist. She enjoyed the term she spent on the board of the Chester Beatty Library. Over the years she served on a number of other State boards including the Contemporary Arts Society as she had a particular interest in the humanities.
It was indeed appropriate that her death occurred on Good Friday for Nóirín had true Christian values while at heart she was also a true humanist. At the time of her death she served on the boards of St Luke's Hospital and the Legal Aid Board.
She died on the occasion also of the Spring Equinox, a time of equal day and night. This too was appropriate for here was a person who had the eternal spring of open-mindedness and youthfulness despite her many great years of life on this earth; a person who genuinely believed in true equality of gender; the equality of the social sectors of society and one who refused to recognise "the generation gap".
Her big fear for our own society was regarding our new sense of affluence and ambition with many inevitable side effects of crudeness and savagery.
Nóirín never got to write that book that she so often promised but to those who knew her she was the personification of the best novel: the Irish rebel; the political mastermind; the mysterious woman; the respected and fashion-conscious socialite; and the hilarious imp - all wrapped into one lovely human being.
Nóirín Slattery: born May 19th, 1926; died March 21st, 2008