Early and Private Life
Patrick John Hillery, more popularly known as Paddy Hillery, was born in Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, County Clare in 1923. The son of Michael Joseph Hillery, a local doctor, and Ellen McMahon, a district nurse, he was educated locally at Miltown Malbay national school before later attending Rockwell College. At third level Hillery attended University College Dublin where he qualified with a degree in medicine. Upon his conferral in 1947 he returned to his native town where he followed in his father’s footsteps as a doctor. Hillery’s medical career in the 1950s saw him serve as a member of the National Health Council and as Medical Officer for the Miltown Malbay Dispensary District. He also spent a year working as coroner for West Clare.
Hillery married Maeve Finnegan on 27 October 1955. Together they had a son, John, and a daughter, Vivienne, who died after a long illness in 1987, shortly before her eighteenth birthday.
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