Mary Harney (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish former politician. She served as Tánaiste from 1997–2006, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from 1997–2004, and as Minister for Health and Children from 2004 to 2011. She also served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Mid–West and Dublin South–West constituencies from 1981 to 2011.
She was leader of the Progressive Democrats party between 1993–2006 and again from 2007–08. She resumed her role as leader in 2007 after her successor, Michael McDowell, lost his seat at the 2007 general election. She is the longest ever serving female member of Dáil Éireann.
Read more about Mary Harney: Early Life, Personal Life
Famous quotes containing the word mary:
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)