David Norris (Independent)

I am honoured to have been asked by my group to represent the Independent group in paying tribute to the late Nuala Fennell. She grew up in Portlaoise and as a Laois man of one remove, I am very proud that county can claim a connection with one of the great forward-looking figures of Irish politics in the second half of the 20th century.

She was the daughter of an officer in the Garda. I knew her for many years. She was one of a formidable group of early feminists. She gave the impression of owl-like wisdom which she justified by her behaviour and her political activity. She could get tough, but she was always courteous and honest. She was the kind of person who gave feminism a good name. She was a kind of respectable revolutionary.

I recall when she left the Irish Women's Liberation Movement because she felt there was something negative in some of the attitudes towards men. She always attempted to keep a type of balance in her thoughts and in what she did.

Nuala was taken very seriously, and one can gather that from the attacks on her from the reactionary right. She was one of a group of people who would be consistently named as representing that kind of progressive tendency, which was rejected and resisted by some.

She was involved in many organisations including AIM, which has been mentioned, Cherish and the National Women's Council of Ireland. I had a good deal of contact with her when I was helping to fund-raise for the women's refuge.

Her appointment in 1982 was historic. She was the first Minister of State for women's affairs. If I am correct, that was the first time a ministerial post was created specifically to look after the status of women. That was historic, but her interest did not end with the end of her active political career. She was former president of the European Parliament Former Members Association and kept in touch with her colleagues and friends. We used to see her occasionally because eventually she had a career as a political lobbyist.

She was a decent sort. She was somebody who will be very much missed in these days in politics when the apparently modest virtues of decency and honesty are sadly lacking. I believe she will leave a gap in national life and in the life of Fine Gael, her party, to which she was devoted.

I was abroad when Nuala died and only learned of her death subsequently. It gave me a considerable shock to learn that somebody of my own generation who had fought a similar fight had died, in my opinion long before her time.