Eileen Desmond

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Eileen Desmond
Minister for Health
In office 30 June 1981 – 9 March 1982
Taoiseach	Garret FitzGerald
Preceded by	Michael Woods
Succeeded by	Michael Woods
Minister for Social Welfare
In office 30 June 1981 – 9 March 1982
Taoiseach	Garret FitzGerald
Preceded by	Michael Woods
Succeeded by	Michael Woods
Teachta Dála
In office June 1981 – February 1987
Constituency	Cork South-Central
In office February 1973 – June 1981
In office March 1965 – June 1969
Constituency	Cork Mid
Member of the European Parliament
In office 1 July 1979 – 20 June 1984
Constituency	Munster
Senator
In office 20 June 1969 – 19 February 1973
Constituency	Industrial and Commercial Panel
Personal details
Born	Eileen Christine Harrington (1932-12-29)29 December 1932 Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland
Died	6 January 2005(2005-01-06) (aged 72) Cork, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Spouse(s)	Dan Desmond (m. 1958; d. 1965)
Children	2
Alma mater	University College Cork

Eileen Christine Desmond (née Harrington; 29 December 1932 – 6 January 2005) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Health and Minister for Social Welfare from 1981 to 1982. She served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1965 to 1969, 1973 to 1981 and 1981 to 1987. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Munster constituency from 1979 to 1984. She was a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from 1969 to 1973.^[1]

Life[]

She was born in Kinsale, County Cork, and educated locally at the Convent of Mercy in Kinsale, where she was one of only two girls in her class to sit the Leaving Certificate examination. Before entering politics she worked as a civil servant with the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.

Desmond was first elected to Dáil Éireann in a by-election on 10 March 1965, caused by the death of her husband Dan Desmond who had been a TD since 1948.^[2] Her victory in the Cork Mid constituency led Taoiseach Seán Lemass to dissolve the 17th Dáil and call a general election. She was elected for the second time in a year, but lost her seat at the 1969 general election. However, Desmond was then elected to the 12th Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial Panel, where she served until her re-election to the 20th Dáil following the 1973 general election. She supported the unsuccessful Contraceptives Bill in 1974.

She was elected to the European Parliament at the 1979 European Parliament election for the Munster constituency. However, her time in Europe was short-lived, as she returned to domestic politics when she was offered a position as Minister and the chance to impact upon national legislation. At the 1981 general election she switched her constituency to Cork South-Central. A Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition came to power and Desmond was appointed Minister for Health and for Social Welfare.

Desmond was only the second woman to be appointed to cabinet since the foundation of the state in 1922, and the first in a Fine Gael-Labour Party cabinet. Constance Markievicz had held the cabinet post of Minister for Labour in the revolutionary First Dáil in 1919, but only Máire Geoghegan-Quinn of Fianna Fáil, who was appointed as Minister for the Gaeltacht in 1979, had held cabinet office after the foundation of the state. Desmond was the only woman in that short-lived coalition Cabinet. She created the National Combat Poverty Agency, which addressed inequality. She achieved a 25% increase in social welfare allowance, a level never achieved before.

Desmond retired from full-time politics at the 1987 general election for health reasons. She died suddenly in 2005.

References[]

External links[]

• Personal profile of Eileen Desmond in the European Parliament's database of members
• McNamara, Maedhbh (2020). A Women's Place is in the Cabinet: Women Ministers in Irish Government 1919-2019. Drogheda (Ireland): Sea Dog Books. ISBN 978-1-913275-06-8.