Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

Máire Geoghegan -Quinn (Irish Máire Nic Eochagáin Uí Chuinn; born September 5, 1950 in Carna, County Galway) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and European Commissioner for Science and Research in the Barroso Commission II

Life

Geoghegan -Quinn is a daughter of Fianna Fáil politician Johnny Geoghegan. She attended the College Tourmakeady in County Mayo, the Carysfort College, Blackrock and was a teacher. 1996 Geoghegan-Quinn wrote the novel The Green Diamond about four young women living together in a house in Dublin in the 1960s.

Geoghegan -Quinn is a member of Fianna Fáil. In a by-election in March 1975, she was elected to the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish Parliament. From 1977 to 1979 Geoghegan-Quinn worked as Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy. In 1979 she was appointed Minister in the cabinet of Charles Haughey. This made her the first woman since the state was founded in 1922, and after Constance Markiewicz, which until 1922 in the Provisional Government was Minister of Labour from 1919, the second woman in Irish history at all, and made ​​a minister. From 1985 to 1991 she was a member of the City Council of Galway. In 1982, Geoghegan- Quinn Irish Minister of State at the Ministry of Education, but her tenure was brief, as early as November 1982 elections took place, who lost her party. Only in 1987 succeeded the Fianna Fáil again to get into the government, Geoghegan-Quinn was Minister of State of the Taoiseach. In 1991, she left this post, since it was within the party in opposition to Charles Haugheys party leadership. When the opponent of the party chairman, Albert Reynolds, got to the party leadership, he called Geoghegan- Quinn as Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications. She was Irish Justice Minister in 1993 and joined the company as Minister for the legalization of homosexuality in Ireland.

Geoghegan -Quinn is married to John Quinn and has two children. She currently lives in Luxembourg.