Jan O'Sullivan

Jan O'Sullivan (née Gale) (born 6 December 1950) is an Irish Labour Party politician. A former school teacher, she is currently a Teachta Dála (TD) for Limerick Eastcite web |url=http://oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0&HouseNum=30&MemberID=1754&ConstID=131 |title=Ms. Jan O'Sullivan |author= |work=Oireachtas Members Database |date= |accessdate=2008-01-10] and Labour Party spokesperson on health.

Personal

O'Sullivan was born in Clonlara, County Clare and educated at Villiers Secondary School, Limerick, where her father was a journalist. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, she took a Higher Diploma in Education at University College, Cork. After working as teacher for a short period of time, she studied as a Montessori teachercite book |last=McNamara |first=Maedbh |authorlink= |coauthors=Mooney, Paschal |editor= |others= |title=Women in Parliament: Ireland 1918–2000 |url= |format= |accessmonth= |edition= |year=2000 |month= |publisher=Wolfhound Press |location=Dublin |isbn=0863277594 ] while living in Canada.

A member of the Church of Ireland, she married a Roman Catholic, Dr Paul O'Sullivan, with whom she has one daughter and one son. She chose to spend time at home while having her children and once they were in school she ran a playgroup in the mornings, spent time with the children in the afternoon and political work in the evenings.cite web |url=http://www.db-decision.de/Interviews/Ire/O'Sullivan.htm |title=Deputy Jan O'Sullivan |author= |work=European database: Women in decision-making |date=2001 |accessdate=2008-01-10]

Political career

Local politics

After returning to Ireland, in the late 1970s, O'Sullivan helped to run Limerick's family planning clinic. She entered politics in 1982 by joining the small Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), a small party founded by Limerick TD Jim Kemmy, who had previously been a member of the Labour Party. There had been no political tradition in her family — her parents had supported different parties — and her choice of party was based on her support for Kemmy's stance on Northern Ireland, and his advocacy of family planning services and a pro-choice approach to abortion.

O'Sullivan was elected to Limerick City Council in 1985, and also served as a member of the Mid-Western Health Board from 1991 to 2003.cite news |url=http://www.labour.ie/janosullivan/biography.html |title=The Labour Party: Jan O'Sullivan |author= |work=Labour Party website |date= |accessdate=2008-01-10] She joined the Labour Party when the DSP merged with Labour in 1990, having been one of the DSP's negotiators in the merger discussions. At the 1992 general election as running-mate of the DSP's founder Jim Kemmy she narrowly missed winning a second seat for Labour in Limerick East.cite web |url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=4050 |title=Jan O'Sullivan |author= |work=ElectionsIreland.org |date= |accessdate=2008-01-10] In 1993, she was elected to the 20th Seanad on the Administrative Panel, and became leader of the Labour group in Seanad Éireann.

From 1993 to 1994 O'Sullivan was mayor of Limerick, and her religion twice became an issue in 1994 when she prevented from opening a Christian Brothers school and from reading a lesson at a mass for Limerick's civic week. However, her religious denomination was not the only issue. Family planning was deeply controversial in Ireland from the 1970s to the 1990s, particularly in Limerick where Kemmy had lost his Dáil seat in the November 1982 general election after being denounced from the pulpit for his opposition to the pro-life amendment to the constitution. Those such as O'Sullivan involved in the family planning services which Kemmy had helped found were labelled "Kemmy's Femmies".

O'Sullivan was unsuccessful again at the 1997 general election, but after Kemmy died in September 1997, she was selected as the Labour candidate for the by-election in March 1998. She held the seat in a close 3-way contest, becoming the first female TD from County Limerick since Kathleen O'Callaghan in 1921–1923. Both the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael candidates in the by-election were women, [cite web |url=http://www.electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=1997B&cons=159%20&ref=116 |title=Limerick East by-election, 11 March 1998 |author= |work=ElectionsIreland.org |date= |accessdate=2008-01-10] but O'Sullivan remains Limerick's only woman TD.

She was re-elected in the 2002 and 2007 general elections, and at the local elections in 1999 became Limerick's first alderwoman (as well as it last, since the title was abolished by the Local Government Act 2001).

In Dáil Éireann

In the 28th Dáil, O'Sullivan was the Labour Party spokesperson on justice and equality and a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights. In the 29th Dáil (2002–2007) she was Vice-Chair of the both the Dáil Select Committee on Education and Science and the Joint Committee on Education and Science, as well as her party's spokesperson on education and science.

After Labour's disappointing performance in the 2007 general election, Pat Rabbitte resigned as leader and the outgoing deputy leader, Liz McManus, did not seek re-election. Eamon Gilmore was elected unopposed as leader, [cite news |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0906/labour.html |title=Gilmore declared new Labour leader |author= |work=RTÉ News |date=6 September 2007 |accessdate=2008-01-11] and in a front-branch reshuffle on 16 September, moved O'Sullivan to the high-profile role of spokesperson on health. [cite news |url=http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0919/breaking46.html |title=Gilmore names new front bench |author=Elaine Edwards |work=Irish Times |date=19 September 2007 |accessdate=2008-01-11]

O'Sullivan stood for the deputy leadership, and was narrowly defeated by Dublin West TD Joan Burton, by 1480 votes to 1276. [cite news |url=http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/1004/breaking10.html |title=Burton elected Labour deputy leader in a tight contest |author=Piaras Murphy |work=The Irish Times |date=14 October 2007 |accessdate=2008-01-08]

References

External links

* [http://www.labour.ie/janosullivan/ Jan O'Sullivan's page on the Labour Party website]

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