- Gemma Hussey
Gemma Hussey (née Moran) (born 11 November 1938), is a former senior Irish
Fine Gael politician.Educated at
University College Dublin , Hussey had a successful career running a language school in the late 1960s and '70's. She was first elected toDáil Éireann , on her second attempt at the February 1982 general election, as aFine Gael TD for Wicklow.She had earlier been elected by the National University of Ireland to
Seanad Éireann , serving in the upper house of theOireachtas from 1977 until 1982. She sat as an independent senator for the first three years, before serving as Fine Gael spokesman on Women's Affairs (1981–1982) and then Government Leader of the Seanad.Hussey served as Minister for Education in the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government of
Garret Fitzgerald from 1982 to 1986, during which time she was heavily criticised by teachers' unions during a bitter pay strike in 1984. In 1986, she was re-shuffled to the equally contentious Social Welfare ministry.Always a liberal and a
feminist , she took a strongly supportive position on the legalisation of divorce, which was defeated in a referendum in 1986, and frequently suggested that her support for liberalisation of the republic's anti-abortion laws. A heroine to Fine Gael's social democratic wing, which included "feminists" such asMonica Barnes and Nuala Fennell, as well asAlan Shatter andAlan Dukes , she was disliked by the conservative Roman Catholic (Christian Democratic) wing of the party which included TDs likeOliver J. Flanagan ,Alice Glenn , andGerry L'Estrange .Her cabinet diaries (1990), "At the Cutting Edge", were hailed as the most thorough and realistic account of life inside the cabinet in the Republic of Ireland. She retired from politics at the 1989 general election.
In 1990, she had her knuckles rapped for suggesting that she might support the Labour PArty Presidential candidate,
Mary Robinson , a passionate feminist, over the official Fine Gael candidate,Austin Currie . Mary Robinson went on the become the Republic's first female president.An enthusiastic Europhile, she spends a lot of her time now promoting the advancement of women in politics around the EU.
Bibliography
*Hussey, Gemma: "At the Cutting Edge: Cabinet Diaries, 1982-1987" (Dublin, 1990)
*Hussey, Gemma: "Ireland Today: Anatomy of a Changing State" (London, 1993)Navboxes
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