Family full of stars with confidence and can-do attitude
SHE has yet to secure her nomination for the presidency, but already Joan Freeman’s formidable family has come under the spotlight.
She is the aunt of Maria Steen, probably the most impressive spokesperson on the No side of the recent abortion referendum, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and a leading light of the Iona Institute.
Joan’s sister Theresa Lowe, the well-known broadcaster-cumbarrister and communications
Linchpin of a formidable family
guru also holds pro-life views as does Theresa’s husband and Joan’s brother-in-law, the music producer Frank McNamara. McNamara also had a tilt at electoral politics about 10 years ago, running for the doomed Progressive Democrats in Dublin SouthCentral.
Joan’s links to the Iona Institute were highlighted during her meeting in Waterford but the Senator deftly swatted away the insinuation that under her tenure Áras an Uachtaráin may become a hotbed for traditional Catholicism. She pointed out that one of her daughters campaigned for Repeal and that while she herself voted against removing the Eighth Amendment it was less out of religious convictions than the value she personally places on human life.
Senator Freeman said she had worked her whole life to preserve life, adding that as president she would be happy to carry the wish of the people and sign into law any resulting abortion Bill.
Freeman was raised in a tightly knit family, growing up in Warwickshire in England and then in Dublin. She was the sixth of the late Marie and John Lowe’s eight offspring, six daughters and two sons, and has been described by sister Theresa as the linchpin of the family.
Besides Theresa, the youngest of the brood who found fame early as presenter of Where In The World, RTÉ’s popular quiz show, Joan’s brother John Lowe is a financial adviser who is known in the media as The Money Doctor.
A ‘brat’ when she was growing up
Her sister Margaret is married to Seán Davin, the prominent auctioneer who once cut a familiar sight in the capital being ferried around in his chauffeured RollsRoyce. Seán’s ownership of the company Lowe Taverns which controlled 18 acres of surface car parking at The Square in Tallaght made him a key player in its development. The Davins have made donations to Senator Rónán Mullen’s election campaign and are the parents of Maria Steen. Joan’s sister Mary Lowe is well known in musical circles as director of CÓRus, which provides singing classes to adults.
Self-confidence coupled with an admirable work ethic and can-do attitude seems to be a family trait. Something Theresa and Joan attribute to their mother’s influence. ‘My brother says that Mammy told us so often that we were brilliant that we began to believe it,’ Theresa said recently.
Mother Marie was from the Curragh and she met her Offaly husband John Lowe in Dublin in the Forties. They had a whirlwind
romance, becoming engaged three days after their first date and marrying 10 months later. They emigrated to England for work, returning to live in Dundrum, Dublin, in 1970 with John working as postmaster in Richmond Street.
‘England was a pagan country as far as my mother was concerned,’ said Joan a few years ago. But the Lowes were a thoroughly devoted couple and succeeded in passing their faith on to their offspring.
A few years ago Joan told an interviewer that while her siblings were all very well behaved growing up, she was a ‘brat and a troublemaker’. She smoked at 16 and pretended to be going to céilís when she was going to discos.
At 22 she met her husband, Pat, a postmaster at Bluebell, at a fancy dress party. Joan gave up her job in video production to rear their four children but when she was 28 she saw an advert for a marriage counsellor and applied. She studied for a psychology degree with the Open University, and became a private counsellor.
She closed that small business on the launch of Pieta House and threw herself into the work with a missionary zeal and often, she admits, to the detriment of family life. Luckily her children coped with her absences, with two of them, Martin and Marie, joining her as adults on the staff of Pieta House. As she sets her sights on the presidency and prepares for possibly the toughest and most unforgiving battle of her life, Joan Freeman may have to rely on family loyalty and kinship again.