Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to pay tribute on my behalf, and that of Fianna Fáil, to the late, great Mary Jackman. I warmly welcome her husband, Nick, daughter, Nicola, her sister, Ursula, and the rest of the family. I also welcome her Fine Gael colleagues in the Oireachtas, past and present. In particular, I welcome my neighbour, Michael Finucane.

I do not have the privilege of saying I was a personal friend of Mary Jackman. However, I can say I worked with and engaged with her for many years on a number of different authorities. Our careers have a similar trajectory. We were both elected for the first time in 1985 to our respective councils. We both became chairman or mayor of our counties. We were both English teachers. We had quite a lot in common.

I spent a lot of my time knocking around with the political pond life of Limerick in my capacity as a member of the old Limerick Harbour Commissioners, later the Limerick Harbour Board, and later still Shannon Foynes Port Company. Mary was not on any of those boards. I had the privilege of serving with Bobby Byrne, father of my colleague, Senator Maria Byrne. I enjoyed my time very much. Mary was always involved in the future of the Shannon Estuary. In that, we had common cause. The Shannon Estuary is as important to us in north Kerry, as it is to Limerick city. We found common cause there. There was a fair old battle going on at the time to try to form a single estuarial authority. The redoubtable Michael Finucane was looking after the interests of Foynes Port. We finished up with a compromise, which of course Foynes won, and it became Shannon Foynes Port Company. That is by the by.

What I liked about Mary Jackman was that she was a terrific politician. She was a real politician, who tried and tried. Like me, she fought the 1989 and 1992 general elections. We were both unsuccessful. By the time the next one came along I was well clobbered by my colleagues in the party in Kerry. However, Mary ran again and achieved a huge vote. She was very unlucky not to win on that occasion, as she was on other occasions. She was a huge poll topper in her local electoral area.

She was the kind of politician I like. There was nothing soft. She fought her corner and she won. That was at a time when women in politics were still relatively unusual. Today, we are fighting for equality, gender balance and so on. In those days, most of the councils of Ireland had no women. I was always in favour of the involvement of women in politics because my cousin Kit Ahern, a former Senator and Deputy in these Houses, was one of the first women to make it. She had a very hard battle as a woman. Those big strong men around north Kerry knocked skelps off her, just as I am sure Mary had to fight her corner in Limerick as well. Kit Ahern used to tell me that it was not the size of the dog in the fight, but of the fight in the dog. I think Mary Jackman definitely lived up to that.

I have no more to say, other than it was a pleasure to know her. Her reputation precedes her today. My party wishes sympathy to her party colleagues who obviously miss her greatly. Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.