MYRA BARRY FEATURES IN NEW BOOK ON WOMEN IN POLITICS
A new book by Martina Murray and Maria Hegarty entitled ‘Proud to Serve: The Voices of the Women of Cumann na nGaedheal and Fine Gael 1922-1992’, recalls the many women who blazed a trail for future generations in politics, including Fermoy TD, Myra Barry.
Myra Barry became a founding member of Young Fine Gael, helping to set up the Finglas branch of the organisation in the late 1970s.
Myra’s father Richard (Dick) was also a TD when Myra entered the Dáil, the only time to date that a parent and child have represented the same constituency in the same Dáil. She successfully contested three further elections, topping the poll on each occasion. Myra retired from politics in 1987.
She successfully contested the Cork North East by-election in 1979, and became the first Young Fine Gael member to be elected to the Dáil, heading the poll on her first outing. There were two by-elections in Cork on the same day and Fine Gael won both of them. The by-election results in his native county were one of the factors that led to the subsequent resignation of Jack Lynch as leader of Fianna Fáil.
In the book, Myra, who lives in Dublin where she has been working as a Clinical Psychologist, speaks of her history and how she felt to be a pioneer in the difficult environment of Irish political life.
“I was born into politics. My parents met while canvassing and my father was a TD when I was born.
“My main motivation for getting involved was that I strongly believed in the need for a just and caring society. I would have been influenced by Declan Costello’s ‘Towards A Just Society’ and I was also a big fan of Garret Fitzgerald.
“His idealism and vision for a pluralist society was kind of infectious, and it seemed like a place where things could happen. I became a founding member of Young Fine Gael and we had a whole campaign around the abolition of illegitimacy.
“We were all very idealistic and enthusiastic, and we really believed we would make a difference and change things, not realising how slow change was,” she explained
Myra spoke of her by- election campaign as a twenty two year old woman and how she really didn’t think she had a chance of winning.
“I thought Fine Gael were giving me a run to see how I’d poll, and if I did well enough they might earmark me for the seat my father held when he retired. I remember there was a lot of energy around me, Charlie McCreevy put a bet on me and I could feel the momentum gathering as the weeks went by.
“There were two by-elections that day and we weren’t expecting to win either of them. Fianna Fáil always had the majority vote in the constituency, so it seemed unlikely that two TDs from the same house would be elected for Fine Gael. Liam Burke was running in Jack Lynch country, and nationally the Party had been down at heel after Fianna Fáil’s 1977 auction politics manifesto, so those by-election wins were a big flip in fortunes for Fine Gael,” she added.
DÁIL REFORM SLOW
Despite the challenges Myra said that she felt that her transition into politics in the Dáil was ‘very easy’.
“I quickly had a sense that I belonged and I loved representing the constituents. I found the Dáil chamber antiquated and adversarial. I brought a shopping basket into the Dáil on one occasion to signify the increase in basic grocery prices and the Ceann Comhairle told me I was not allowed bring visual aids into the chamber.
“At that time there were only about eight women there. It was very much a men’s club and there were still some remnants of Civil War politics. For backbencher TDs there was no induction course, no research facilities and, as a backbencher, it was difficult to get heard in the Dáil, and making a difference was challenging.
“In terms of speaking times, the same unfairness still applies today for backbenchers from larger parties, but not from smaller parties.
“The reason I left in the end was because I didn’t think that I was making a significant difference in terms of my aspirations towards a just society. The Dáil was a place where things changed very slowly and I felt I was a cog in the wheel of that system.
“It was like I could be doing this for the next fifty years and would it change society that much? A lot of much needed Dáil reform has only started to occur in recent years. I had headed the poll in the by-election and in three general elections so people were wondering how I could walk away from it, but actually Garret was very understanding at the time,” she revealed.
‘TAOISEACH CLAPS FOR MAIDEN SPEECH’
For Myra, her maiden speech was a dramatic moment and she was well prepared waiting to begin her speech only for an unforeseen roadblock.
“The maiden speech was a big thing. I was due to speak just before the Dáil finished for the night, but someone went on and on and my turn didn’t come.
“When I told my father he said, ‘It’s a pity now, when you go in there in the morning you’ll have the whole house looking at you, including the Taoiseach’.
“The next morning after the order of business, the Taoiseach usually leaves and I asked Charlie Haughey to stay and listen to me as he obviously didn’t understand young people and if he’d just sit down and listen he might learn something.
“He sat down and clapped when I had finished. That’s what made the headlines the next day; ‘Taoiseach claps for maiden speech’,” she said.
The communication systems, Myra recalled, were very different, and she remembers receiving telegrams to attend the Dail.
But the challenges for women is what stands out
and the need to fight to be heard.
“My memory is that it was very hard for women. Some women got a hard time from some of the men when they’d try to push the ‘Women’s Agenda’ and the idea that women had a rightful role in politics and were entitled to be there.
“There were some snide comments and even trying to change things like the languaging of parliamentary party meetings was difficult. Looking back, the men never gave me a hard time.
“I think because I was mixing with rural TDs across the parties they would have regarded me very much as part of the pack, and because I was young they would have been protective of me.
“I don’t ever remember feeling put down by them, or that I didn’t belong or “who did I think
I was saying that?” I did have the sense that I was being treated equally. It was like being a member of the club, that each one of us was elected to this assembly democratically and everybody knew how hard it was to get elected, and there was a sense of mutual respect for that,” she added.
EIGHTH AMENDMENT - ‘NASTY & VICIOUS’
Her time during the 1983 abortion referendum ‘was very stressful’ and she found herself under fire and she remembers the dramatic moment when the wording of the Eighth Amendment was changed.
She described it as ‘nasty and vicious’.
“I think one of the mistakes we made as politicians around some of the more socially divisive campaigns of the 1980s and ‘90s involved sticking to the adversarial British sys
tem of politics we inherited.
“This time people seemed much more respectful of each other’s opinions and I think the Citizen’s Assembly was a good idea. That’s probably one of the good things about the new politics, everything doesn’t have to be black or white,” she added.
Myra said she is ‘humbled and honoured’ that the people of East Cork would put their faith in her at such a young age.
She is proud to have made the leap into politics and believed then that women would make a ‘ breakthrough’ into politics without the need for quotas. “But actually now, I realise that they were needed,” she said.
“I am conscious that politics is continuously challenging and the maintenance of female TDs in
the Dáil will require supports such as maternity leave, appropriate crèche facilities etc., especially for female rural deputies.
“What you’re learning is that the challenges are all quite individualistic, so you have to build different systems for different needs.
“I am hopeful when I see all the Fine Gael women around the country and the current crop of women in the Dáil who all seem very able and confident, that there is a great future for women in politics. I think society as a whole will benefit from the increased participation of women in Dáil Eireann and increased gender balance in the years ahead,” she concluded.
The new book was launched on March 9 by An Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.