Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I pay tribute to Mrs. Eileen Desmond, a former Member of the Oireachtas who was a Member of this House for a period. She was a Member of the Dáil, the Seanad and the European Parliament. During her tenure of those various positions she displayed considerable intelligence and political acumen. I do not often agree with Fergus Finlay, nor he with me, but he wrote a wonderful article about her in which he said: "We have lost a woman of great charm, courage and conviction." It has alliteration, but it also has truth in it.

When I became a Member of the Dáil at the end of 1982, having been in the Seanad for the previous six months, she was Minister for Health. She was a woman one could approach on the corridor and tell a tale from the midlands which she would remember when one next met her. She was approachable, but also very interesting. She became a Member of the Dáil as a young woman, aged 32, and was one of only five women in that Dáil. She got her seat first in a by-election, but did not hold it. However, she graced the Dáil on many occasions.

I particularly remember that during one of those awful periods when there were pro and anti abortion campaigns she displayed great courage for a female rural Deputy. I remember speaking to her one day when she was sitting in her car about to head off for Cork. The car was piled full with boxes of leaflets she was going to distribute when she got home to her branch meetings. She took a very courageous stand on that issue when other people, certainly other women or Deputies from other parties were not doing it. We all talk about the feminist revolution and the very worthy women who led that cause and went to and from Belfast on the train. All of those events were necessary to highlight the absurdity of a position but in her own quiet way Eileen Desmond was campaigning in the depths of County Cork where it cannot have been easy to have taken the position she took and to have others follow her.

As we know, Eileen was dogged by bouts of ill health but the reason for this was not the cause of her untimely passing. This prevented her from standing for office or from being considered for Cabinet at a later stage. She was a very fine person of considerable worth. I mourn her passing personally and on behalf of my party. She was not old by modern standards. She could well have continued her political career. She had two lovely daughters, both of whom I met on several occasions, Honor and Paula. One in particular has followed on in the political tradition. I extend my sympathy to her daughters, her wider family, friends, acquaintances and the Labour Party of which she was such a sterling torchbearer.