A Union Of Minds
Women Hold The Key

WORDS: YVONNE KERR

The Dáil remains a gentleman’s club with women making up just 13% of the 166 seats. Sinn Féin is flying the flag high for women with four female candidates running for EU election this year. In second place is Labour with two, while other parties lag behind with just one. There are also a number of independent candidates putting themselves forward. WMB spoke to five female candidates who aren’t afraid to step up to the plate.

SINN FÉIN

Mary Lou McDonald MEP wonders how many votes she would win if she could guarantee
sun for the Summer. Jokes aside, five years after she and Bairbre de Brún were elected as Sinn Féin's first political representatives in Europe, she’s been forced to raise both her gaze and her game, she says; “You learn a lot when you have to negotiate with 26 other countries.” She echoes a European colleague who says Ireland is tactically strong but strategically weak. “We engage in short term and reactionary politics whereas other EU countries follow a more long-term strategy.”

LABOUR

Four days each week, Nessa Childers works as a psychotherapist. The rest of her time
is now spent campaigning for a Labour seat in the European parliament. She says the transition from her day job as a listener into her political role can be difficult. “Suddenly, my ego has to be in place,” she says. “I’m not a shouter by nature.” Daughter of former Irish president Erskine Childers and mother of two aged 14 and 19 years, Nessa set up her private business during the 80’s recession. She is painfully aware of the effect that budget cuts have on small, vulnerable businesses, such as hers.

FINE GAEL

Mairead McGuinness MEP stresses that she is not a ‘yes’ politician. “I feel it’s important
tobe a straight talker,” says the Fine Gael EU candidate. “I stick to the facts and tell people as it is. If I want everyone else to respect and listen to me, I have to talk very straight in Europe.” Mairead’s background as a journalist and broadcaster, where she had to condense her thoughts and present them under pressure, was an ideal training ground for her EU role.

GREEN PARTY

Senator Déirdre de Búrca has branched out to use different forms of media to communicate to her voters since becoming a candidate for the EU. Her new website www.whatistandfor.ie speaks to voters of all ages, with You Tube clips, links to Twitter and Facebook. She even has her own blog.Déirdre’s priority issue is the creation of 1000s of new green jobs in Dublin. “Our capital to borrow is very limited so we have to look at new growth opportunities to stimulate economic growth, and that’s largely in the green sector,” she says.

FIANNA FÁIL

Multilingual Eibhlin Byrne finished her one year term as 339th Lord Mayor of Dublin in June. She is only the sixth woman to hold the role (that’s why there’s no female title for the position) and the first female to run for Fianna Fáil at European level in 15 years.
“We’re crashing the ceiling as Hilary Clinton would say, or at least, making a few cracks,” she says. Of the poor representation of women in Irish politics, Eibhlin says female politicians often get frustrated by the time it takes to action real change.
“Women have to sacrifice precious family time for politics,” she says.

Read more of what each candidate have to say in the June 2009 issue of WMB, on newsstands now.