- Mary Fitzpatrick
-
Mary Fitzpatrick Dublin City Councillor Incumbent Assumed office
September 2003Constituency Cabra-Glasnevin Personal details Nationality Irish Political party Fianna Fáil Mary Fitzpatrick is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and a member of Dublin City Council, representing the Cabra-Glasnevin electoral area. She was the party spokesperson on Housing & Urban Development in 2011.[1][2]
Contents
Personal
Fitzpatrick is from the Navan Road and was educated at Our Lady Help of Christians and St Dominics College Cabra before graduating from University College Dublin with a BA in German and Italian.
She emigrated in the 1980s and for more than ten years worked as a Marketing Director for an industry leading global telecoms provider in New York and London before returning to Dublin. Fitzpatrick lives with husband Sean and has three children.
Political career
Fitzpatrick was co-opted to the Council in 2003 to replace her father, Dermot Fitzpatrick TD, who stood down after the Local Government Act 2001 banned sitting Teachtaí Dála and Senators from holding local authority seats while members of the Oireachtas. She was re-elected at the 2004 local elections, polling over 10% of the vote.
2007 general election
At the 2007 general election, held under Ireland's single transferable vote system, rival Cyprian Brady polled just 939 first preference votes (2.7%) in the first count, compared to Fitzgerald's 1,725. However he was elected on the fourth count, due in large part to transfers from his running mate, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern,[3] and became only the second ever TD (after Brian O'Higgins) to be elected with less than 1,000 first-preference votes.[4][5]
The election became the subject of a public controversy, covered in national newspapers[6][7] and on the RTÉ Radio 1 news programme Drivetime and on the weekly Documentary on One which had been covering the campaigns of the three female candidates in the constituency.[8]
Mary Fitzpatrick, who was the third Fianna Fáil candidate in the 4-seat constituency, had received 1,725 first-preference votes, she only got 1,362 from Ahern's surplus whereas Brady got 2,403.[3] In the early hours of the election morning, a letter had been hand-delivered from Ahern's office to 30,000 voters in the constituency, urging them give their first preference to the Taoiseach and their second to Brady.[6][9] Since Ahern was expected to be elected with a large surplus, and the overall Fianna Fáil vote was likely to be large enough to elect two candidates, the destination of the Taoiseach's transfers would determine whether Brady or Fitzpatrick won the second Fianna Fáil seat in Dublin Central. After Ahern's transfers secured Brady's election, Fitzpatrick complained that "I didn't think they'd go out to completely undermine me and shaft me."[10] Brady said "An election is an election and not everybody can win", adding "Mary is a colleague of mine and she is a very good councillor. It's not really fair for Mary to be blaming anybody".[6]
2009 local election
Fitzpatrick was the only Fianna Fáil candidate to get elected on the first count in Dublin in the 2009 local elections. The massive difference between Fitzpatrick's result and that of Maurice Ahern, brother of the former taoiseach who lost his council seat, was viewed as a reaction to perceived unfairness in Fitzpatrick’s treatment by the "Ahern machine" or the "Drumcondra mafia".[11]
2011 general election
In January 2011, she was selected as a Fianna Fáil candidate in Dublin Central for the 2011 general election. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said his loyalties this time would be with sitting TD Cyprian Brady and there was no hope of Fianna Fáil winning two seats in the constituency.[12][13][14]
During the campaign, former Labour party leader Pat Rabbitte, reacting to her appointment as FF spokesperson on Housing and Urban Development, said "You might as well wander down Grafton Street and see if you can meet a couple of good-looking women and say, 'Would you ever mind coming up for the photograph'." FitzPatrick relied: "I'm happy to take the compliment of being a good-looking woman any day, particularly from the Opposition. But I do take issue with his dismissive and patronising attitude to the contribution I've made to political life.It is a real shame that when women are given important jobs on their own merits, they have to deal with sexist comments from Pat Rabbitte."[15][16][17][18]
During the campaign the rows between her and Cyprian Brady were widely reported in the media.[19][20]
Suffering from the massive backlash against Fianna Fáil in Dublin she polled 10% of the vote, losing the final seat to Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin.
She contested the 2011 Seanad election as one of Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin's chosen 10[21] on the Administrative panel but was unsuccessful.
References
- ^ http://www.fiannafail.ie/news/entry/6296/
- ^ http://www.fiannafail.ie/news/entry/6707/
- ^ a b "General Election, 24 May 2007: Dublin Central". ElectionsIreland.org. http://www.electionsireland.org/counts.cfm?election=2007&cons=85&ref=. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
- ^ John Drennan (27 May 2007). "It's a miracle! Bertie raises Cyprian from political tomb". Irish Independent. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/its-a-miracle-bertie-raises-cyprian-from-political-tomb-685360.html. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
- ^ "1923 General election – Clare". ElectionsIreland.org. http://electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=1923&cons=42. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
- ^ a b c Ronan McGreevy (31 May 2007). "Taoiseach's running mate accuses FF of 'shafting' her". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0531/1180483510002.html. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
- ^ Colm Kelpie (31 May 2007). "Beaten FF candidate hits out at party 'sabotage' of campaign". Irish Independent. http://www.independent.ie/other/beaten-ff-candidate-hits-out-at-party-sabotage-of-campaign-686954.html. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
- ^ Bernice Harrison (2 June 2007). "With running mate like these…". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0531/1180483510002.html. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
- ^ Rice, Karen (9 January 2011). "Businesswoman Mary Fitzpatrick finally tells the inside story of how she was stitched up twice by the former taoiseach... but is now having the last laugh". Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345469/Businesswoman-Mary-Fitzpatrick-finally-tells-inside-story-stitched-twice-taoiseach--having-laugh.html?ito=feeds-newsxml.
- ^ "FF candidate says she was sabotaged". The Irish Times. 30 May 2007. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0530/breaking72.html. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
- ^ Olivia Kelly, "Fianna Fail set to take just six seats", Irish Times, 8 June 2009
- ^ "'Shafted' Mary gets last laugh on Bertie". Irish Independent. 25 January 2011. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/shafted-mary-gets-last-laugh-on-bertie-2509068.html. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
- ^ "Fitzpatrick and Brady selected for Dublin Central". The Irish Times. 25 January 2011. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0125/1224288250382.html. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
- ^ "End of a dynasty as Noel Ahern joins Bertie and heads for exit". Evening Herald. 26 January 2011. http://www.herald.ie/national-news/end-of-a-dynasty-as-noel-ahern-joins-bertie-and-heads-for-exit-2509378.html. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
- ^ http://www.herald.ie/national-news/rabbitte-sexism-row-grows-despite-apology-2522096.html
- ^ http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/martin-rabbitte-comments-dismissive-of-women-491838.html
- ^ http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0201/rabbittep_sexism.html
- ^ http://www.thejournal.ie/pat-rabbitte-accused-of-making-sexist-comments-by-ffs-averil-power-2011-2/
- ^ Eating out (18 November 2010). "FF turn on each other over scraps". Herald.ie. http://www.herald.ie/national-news/ff-turn-on-each-other-over-scraps-2556172.html. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
- ^ Michael White in Dublin (25 February 2011). "Irish general election turns into slanging match with parties divided". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/irish-general-election-parties-divided. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/national-news/fitzpatrick-loses-yet-another-tight-contest-2634044.html
External links
Categories:- Living people
- Fianna Fáil politicians
- Irish women in politics
- Local councillors in Dublin (city)
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