Eileen Desmond
Eileen Christine Desmond was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Health and Minister for Social Welfare from 1981 to 1982. She served as a Teachta Dála from 1965 to 1969, 1973 to 1981 and 1981 to 1987. She served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Munster constituency from 1979 to 1984. She was a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from 1969 to 1973.Life
She was born in Kinsale, County Cork, and educated locally at the Convent of Mercy in Kinsale, where she was one of only two girls in her class to sit the Leaving Certificate examination. Before entering politics she worked as a civil servant with the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.
Desmond was first elected to Dáil Éireann in a by-election on 10 March 1965, caused by the death of her husband Dan Desmond who had been a TD since 1948. Her victory in the Cork Mid constituency led Taoiseach Seán Lemass to dissolve the 17th Dáil and call a general election. She was elected for the second time in a year, but lost her seat at the 1969 general election. However, Desmond was then elected to the 12th Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial Panel, where she served until her re-election to the 20th Dáil following the 1973 general election.
She was elected to the European Parliament at the 1979 European Parliament election for the Munster constituency. However, her time in Europe was short-lived, as she returned to domestic politics when she was offered a position as Minister and the chance to impact upon national legislation. At the 1981 general election she switched her constituency to Cork South-Central. A Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition came to power and Desmond was appointed Minister for Health and for Social Welfare.
Desmond was only the second woman to be appointed to cabinet since the foundation of the state in 1922, and the first in a Fine Gael-Labour Party cabinet. Constance Markievicz had held the cabinet post of Minister for Labour in the revolutionary First Dáil in 1919, but only Máire Geoghegan-Quinn of Fianna Fáil, who was appointed as Minister for the Gaeltacht in 1979, had held cabinet office after the foundation of the state
Desmond retired from full-time politics at the 1987 general election for health reasons. She died suddenly in 2005.
