Born: November 11th, 1938
Died: November 26th, 2024
Gemma Hussey was a trailblazing figure in Irish politics. She entered as a campaigner for more women in public life and became the second woman ever to be appointed to Cabinet, serving in Garret FitzGerald’s 1982-1987 government.
As minister for education in a time of recession, she had the unenviable task of trying to restrain the pay bill for the country’s teachers and was embroiled in a series of controversies as she become the target of a sustained campaign of vilification by the Fianna Fáil opposition.
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As the only woman in Cabinet she was often in a lonely place, particularly as the government of which she was a member wrestled with one problem after another, and there were fractious difficulties with some Labour members of the Cabinet.
After leaving politics she published a memorable diary of her time in office, which provided a fascinating glimpse into the operation of the Cabinet. It is a vital source for historians seeking to understand the challenges facing the country in the 1980s.
Many of her Cabinet colleagues resented the publication of the book. They may have had a valid argument that she had breached Cabinet confidentiality, but there was also a strain of misogyny in the personal nature of the criticism levelled by some of the men who had served with her in government.
What they missed was the fact that the diary gave the public an insight into the hard work senior politicians do, often under incredible pressure. One of the many memorable phrases she coined in the diary was her description of the way Garret FitzGerald’s interminable Cabinet meetings often went on into the early hours of the morning. She recorded that when the meetings ended, exhausted ministers sat down to “cold chips and warm gin”.
Gemma Moran was born in 1938 into a comfortable middle class family in Bray, Co Wicklow. She was educated at St Brigid’s school in Bray and later attended the Loreto secondary school in the town before going to the exclusive Mount Anville in south County Dublin to finish her schooling.
She went on to UCD, where she studied languages. Later, after a spell teaching, she set up her own language school. The publication in 1973 of the report of a Commission on the Status of Women prompted her to become active in the women’s movement. With Audrey Conlon and Hilary Pratt, she founded the Women’s Political Association designed to encourage more women into politics.
She was chairwoman of the organisation from 1973 to 1975, and that brought her into the public eye as an articulate advocate on women’s issue. She went on to become a member of the Council for the Status of Women. In the 1977 general election campaign they attracted attention with the slogan: “Why not a woman”.
While she joined Fine Gael in 1972 she did not become an active party member for a number of years, and was elected to the Seanad in 1977 for the NUI constituency as an Independent. She took the Fine Gael party whip in 1980, and contested the 1981 general election as a party candidate in Wicklow. While she failed to win a Dáil seat at her first attempt she was re-elected to the Seanad. She was appointed leader of the House by the incoming taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
Hussey and her businessman husband, Derry, who was a member of the Fine Gael back room team, moved in the same social circles as FitzGerald and his wife, Joan. He was an ardent supporter of hers and as party leader did everything he could to further her political career. She was elected to the Dáil in the first general election of 1982. When Fine Gael made it back into government in the second election of that year she knew that she was assured of a Cabinet post. She lobbied FitzGerald to be appointed minister for education and he duly obliged, moving John Boland, who had been minister for that department in his first government, giving him responsibility for the public service.
Entering the department with plans for sweeping reform, Hussey did have some important achievements, such as the establishment of aural and oral exams and the creation of the National Parents Council. But she found herself frustrated by officials who put obstacles in her way and by the teachers’ unions. The battle over teachers’ pay dominated her tenure, when the government refused to pay an independent arbitrator’s award in full as part of its struggle to get the public finances under control. Hussey defended the decision, and drew the ire of the unions in what became a bitter struggle. Another bruising political row ensued over her decision to close Carysfort teacher training college.
Removing the constitutional ban on divorce was one of her priorities in politics and she ardently supported FitzGerald’s decision to hold a referendum in 1986. Despite the fact that opinion polls in advance of the referendum showed a two to one majority in favour of lifting the ban, it was rejected decisively by the electorate.
Hussey suffered another political blow that year when FitzGerald moved her out of education in a botched Cabinet reshuffle. His original intention was to split the Department of Foreign Affairs in two, giving her responsibility for European affairs. Minister for foreign affairs Peter Barry was horrified by the plan and his fellow Corkman, Barry Desmond, effectively scuppered it by defying the taoiseach and refusing to move from the Department of Health. “Of course Barry’s position of refusing to move wrecked all that and I got shafted,” she noted in her diary.
The upshot was that Hussey was moved to social welfare while education went to veteran Fine Gael politician Patrick Cooney, who had opposed the legalisation of divorce. He brought the long-running dispute with the teachers to an end, while she ran into another row with the Labour Party over a scheme to equalise welfare payments for women and men which had the potential to involve reductions for some recipients.
The government lost office in 1987 and while Hussey held her seat she felt there was nothing else she could achieve in politics and did not contest the next election in 1989. However, she did turn the trials and tribulations she faced during her time in Cabinet into a riveting book, At the Cutting Edge: Cabinet Diaries 1982-1987.
That book drew the ire of some of the Cabinet colleagues with whom she had tussled, notably John Boland, who gave it a damning review, and Barry Desmond who responded in his own memoir by accusing her of arrogance towards Labour ministers and deep ingratitude to her patron, Garret FitzGerald.
Having left Irish politics in her early 50s, she immersed herself in the European Women’s Federation, encouraging women in former Eastern-bloc countries to become active in politics for the first time. She wrote a second book, Ireland Today: An anatomy of a Changing State, which offered insights into Irish politics and the changes in society that occurred during her time in the Oireachtas. She supported Mary Robinson in the 1990 presidential election and backed a Yes vote in the 2015 marriage equality referendum.
Gemma Hussey is survived by her children, Rachel, Ruth and Andrew and her brother Paddy. Her husband, Derry, predeceased her.