Máire Geoghegan-Quinn: European Commissioner

I had the pleasure of chairing a business conference in Galway recently, where the keynote speaker was European Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

It was only then that I reflected on her career and the fact that she ranks of one the most successful women in Irish public life in modern times. A native Irish speaker from Carna in the heart of the Connemara Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) in County Galway, she won a by-election in Galway West in 1975 to take the seat in Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament) held by her late father. Four years later, she made history by becoming the first woman appointed to an Irish Government since the establishment of the State in 1922, or second only to Countess Markievicz (née Gore-Booth from Sligo, the first woman elected to the Westminster Parliament in 1918), who was Minister for Labour in the First Dáil in pre-independence Ireland.

Máire Geoghehan-Quinn served as a reforming Minister of the Gaeltacht, Tourism, Transport and Communications, and Justice during a difficult period in recent Irish history. In that ministry, she decriminalised homosexuality. She also had a leading role in the negotiations that led to the Downing Street Declaration of December 15, 1993, when the British Government became engaged with the peace process in Northern Ireland, the first major step on the long road to peace. After leaving politics in 1995, she served as an non-executive director of Aer Lingus and the Ryan Hotel Group, as well as becoming a television presenter and a columnist with the Irish Times newspaper. She also published a novel in 1996, The Green Diamond. She was then appointed as Ireland’s member of the European Court of Auditors and served in the role for two terms. In November 2009, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn was nominated as a European Commissioner and in February 2010 assumed office with responsibility for Research, Innovation and Science.

Bernard O'Hara's latest book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish is now on sale in the USA and UK as a paperback book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or Barnes and Noble

It is also available as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).

An earlier publication, a concise biography of Michael Davitt, entitled Davitt by Bernard O’Hara published in 2006 by Mayo County Council , is now available as Davitt: Irish Patriot and Father of the Land League by Bernard O’Hara, which was published in the USA by Tudor Gate Press (www.tudorgatepress.com) and is available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).