“Until Mary Robinson’s election, the Presidency was a dowdy institution. It was seen as the final place of political eminence for senior male Fianna Fáil politicians, somewhere for them to rest between leaving government office and their obituaries” Second Reading Fr Kevin Hegarty
THE general election of 1969 promised more of the same. The electorate returned Fianna Fáil to office for the fourth successive time.
The senate election for the Trinity College constituency, however, produced a surprise. Mary Robinson became the first Roman Catholic to be elected for this constituency. At the age of 25, she was then the youngest ever senator.
So began a lengthy career of public service, permeated by a commitment to human rights, that continues to today. Last Saturday, at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, she received the Prix des Generations, in recognition of this commitment. Vaclav Havel, the Czech philosopher, dramatist and politician, is a previous recipient of the award.
Most politicians are pragmatists. They praise and placate the electorate rather than challenge it. I believe we need visionary politicians, leaders who stimulate our creativity, stretch our imaginations, highlight our cultural and social blindspots and inspire us to noble ideals.
Mary Robinson is one of that select group. For almost 40 years she has challenged our society, in a variety of roles, to make human rights matter ‘in small places, close to home’; as a senator and barrister between 1969 and 1989, as President of Ireland, 1990 to 1997, as UN Commissioner for Human Rights, 1997 to 2002, and now as head of the Ethical Globalisation initiative.
When Mary Robinson first entered politics in Ireland in 1969, the status of women was at a low ebb: women were not called to serve on juries; women had no statutory right to equal pay; a married woman had no legal domicile other than her husband’s; if a married woman paid tax, her husband got the rebates; he also received the children’s allowance money; he was also the legal guardian of the children. Women also had to resign from public service jobs when they married. Women workers earned 54.9 per cent of men’s wages.
In addition, Roman Catholic teaching on sexual matters, like, for example, on the availability of contraceptives, had the force of civil law and in the case of divorce, constitutional prohibition.
Homosexual acts were criminalised. This was an affront to Irish citizens who were not members of the majority church. Liberal Roman Catholics also found it inappropriate that the laws and constitution of a democratic republic should embody the exclusive teaching of one church.
By the early 1970s, Irish women had begun to challenge these inequities. Mary Robinson was in the vanguard of the movement for change. To echo some words of her friend, the poet, Eavan Boland, in a poem dedicated to Mary, she gave political and legal voice to the vision. She used the forum of the senate to highlight the need for change. As a barrister, she discerned the capacity of Irish and European Law to effect positive social change and she used it.
By the last decade of the 20th century, Ireland was inching its way to becoming more tolerant, equal and open, though the agenda of inclusion remained considerable. It was fitting that Mary Robinson served as President of this emerging Ireland.
Until her election to the office, the Presidency was a dowdy institution. It was seen as the final place of political eminence for senior male Fianna Fáil politicians, somewhere for them to rest between leaving government office and their obituaries.
Mary Robinson revitalised the Presidency. As a constitutional lawyer, she was acutely aware of the restraints on the office. What she did was to unleash its symbolic power.
In her election campaign, she left the comfortable haven of south Dublin and travelled extensively throughout an Ireland, often hidden from the national media, the world of women’s groups, community associations, small farmers and fishermen, emigrants, islanders and travellers. She heard the hungers of modern Ireland.
In office she did not forget them. There were historic events during her Presidency, like meeting with Queen Elizabeth, but what characterised her tenure were the regular visits to local communities and voluntary groups. She celebrated their work and gave state validation to their existence.
Her presidential visits to Somalia and Rwanda, both broken by civil war, ignited in her a desire to contribute to ‘the international protection and promotion of human rights’. This she has done as UN Commissioner for Human Rights and now as head of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative.
In 1985, Desmond O’Malley dissented from Fianna Fáil opposition to a bill making contraceptives more widely available by asserting he stood by the Republic. Mary Robinson has done that also. She has done more. Seamus Heaney has written of the ‘Republic of Conscience’. That is the republic by which she has stood in her public career. It is a constant and arduous challenge, for, as Heaney has written, its embassies are everywhere and ‘no ambassador would ever be relieved’.
