Remembering Gemma Hussey: Trailblazing politician and campaigner for women in public life

Gemma Hussey became only the second woman ever appointed to a cabinet position in the Republic when she served as education minister in the 1980s.

President Michael D Higgins led tributes to the former Fine Gael TD, who has died aged 86.

“A lifelong committed feminist, Gemma Hussey was a passionate advocate and inspiration for the vitally important increase in the number of women serving in our political system,” he said.

“As a dedicated and effective government minister, she set a stirring example of the key role which must be held by women in politics.

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“In introducing aural and oral exams and establishing the National Parents Council as minister for education, she put in place lasting reforms which have benefited all those who have grown up in Ireland in the succeeding decades.”

President Higgins added that after her departure from the political front line, Ms Hussey remained an “incisive commentator and an always valuable voice on the political system”.

Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris, who followed in her footsteps as a Wicklow TD, described her as a “trailblazer”.

“Gemma was a passionate progressive for women’s rights, education reform and Ireland’s place in the world, particularly the potential of European Union membership.”

Born in Bray in 1938, Ms Hussey chaired the Women’s Political Association in the 1970s to campaign for greater gender balance in the Dáil and served as a Senator from 1977 to 1982, initially as an independent.

She was first elected at TD in 1982, following a campaign the previous year in which she recalled one woman telling her “You should be at home and not be taking a job from a man”.

Later that year, she became Ireland’s first female Minister for Education under Garret FitzGerald’s Fine Gael-Labour coalition government, a post she held until 1986.

She briefly also served as Minister for Social Welfare and Minister for Labour, before retiring from politics in 1989.

She later co-founded the European Women’s Federation and the Worldwide International Women’s Forum, becoming its first president.

** The Irish News publishes a selection of readers’ obituaries each Saturday. Families or friends are invited to send in accounts of anyone they feel has made a contribution to their community or simply led an interesting or notable life. Call Aeneas Bonner on 028 9040 8360 or email a.bonner@irishnews.com.