Mervyn Taylor
First Jewish minister in Irish politics, who championed the ending of the country’s ban on divorce
MERVYN TAYLOR, who has died aged 89, was the first Jewish minister in an Irish government, and as Minister for Law Reform and Equality in 1995 he masterminded the introduction of divorce in the Republic of Ireland.
It was an uphill battle, in a country where a powerful Catholic Church remained as steadfastly opposed to the measure as it had been when, nine years earlier, a proposed amendment to the Irish constitution to remove the prohibition on divorce was rejected in a referendum.
When the 1995 amendment was put forward, Taylor struck an emollient note: “Irish society cherishes the family, and no one salutes the introduction of divorce.” The change was presented not as a civil right, but as a regrettable necessity to deal with a growing number of marriage breakdowns and to allow a second chance to those already separated legally. Conditions were attached to prevent hasty divorces.
Although all political parties backed the measure, it passed only by a slender majority at the referendum and would probably have been defeated had not heavy rain in the conservative districts of the West reduced turnout there.
Taylor’s Jewish background may have helped, in a country anxious to exhibit its tolerance. His Polish father, Abel Chaiet, had moved from Leeds to Dublin in the 1920s, and prospered in the rag trade; he changed the family name to Taylor.
Mervyn Taylor was born on December 28 1931; he joined other boys from the city’s small Jewish community at the Methodist Wesley College before reading Law at the mainly Protestant Trinity College Dublin and qualifying as a solicitor.
Setting up on his own, the hard-working Taylor, whose physical agility betokened energy and purpose, attracted clients outside his own community as a plaintiff ’s solicitor, often taking on cases on a “no foal no fee” basis.
He was successful enough to be able to marry before he was 30. His wife Marilyn was the daughter of Samuel Fisher, subsequently mayor of Camden and, as Lord Fisher of Camden, a Labour life peer in the House of Lords in the 1970s.
Aspiring to a role in the mainstream of Irish life, Taylor joined the Irish Labour Party when it had high hopes that the 1970s would be a socialist decade. He was elected to Dublin county council, of which he became the first Jewish chairman in 1977.
He won esteem getting services improved in deprived new suburbs and helping constituents in difficulty. On the council, he was a vigilant critic of the easy ride given to developers and builders by Fianna Fáil ministers, whose party they financed.
Elected to the Dáil in 1981, Taylor joined those on the far left of the Labour Party who eschewed coalition and advocated going it alone. He declined office when the party was in government under the progressive Fine Gael leader Garret Fitzgerald.
When Labour made big gains in the 1992 general election, however, Taylor helped to negotiate for a coalition government with the freewheeling Fianna Fáil leader Albert Reynolds, and was appointed minister in a new Department of Law Reform and Equality.
He continued in 1994 when Labour switched allegiance and the Fine Gael leader John Bruton took over as Taoiseach, going on to give decisive backing to the referendum the following year on permitting divorce.
As a minister, Taylor saw through to enactment legislation decriminalising homosexual acts. But he suffered a reverse when legislation giving spouses automatic joint ownership of the family home was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Never succumbing to the negativity of those civil servants who were prone to allow the best to become the enemy of the good, Taylor pressed on with other overdue reforms in the law; his equality legislation outlawing discrimination inter alia on grounds of sexual orientation was progressive for the time.
He was popular among fellow politicians: his dedication, lack of self-importance and indifference to the trappings of office were winning.
Taylor did not stand for re-election to the Dáil at the general election of 1997 and concentrated thereafter on his family, his friends, and hobbies such as boating on the Shannon. He rejoiced in the success his librarian wife enjoyed late in life as a prize-winning author of children’s books. They had lived mainly in England in recent years. His wife survives him.
Their three children had been part of the gradual exodus of younger members of Ireland’s Jewish community keen to find Jewish spouses that has reduced the community in Ireland to a quarter of its number at the middle of the 20th century.
Their eldest son Adam is a solicitor in London, while Gideon is chief executive of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. Their daughter Maryanne emigrated to his beloved Israel.