Family and Cork on Martin’s mind
Taoiseach pays tribute to inf luence of his wife, children and community in emotional speech
AN EMOTIONAL Micheál Martin paid a special tribute to his wife, children and local community in his speech accepting the post of Taoiseach.
Travel restrictions due to the pandemic means Mr Martin has not seen his Cork-based family for three months.
This also meant that, uniquely, his family were not present in the Conference Centre Dublin yesterday to witness his election as Taoiseach days before his 60th birthday.
Mr Martin said with somewhat of a catch in his throat: ‘My wife Mary has been a pillar of support and a partner for me since our days in college… Most of all I want to thank my family and my community. Without them I would have achieved nothing.’
The normally reserved Fianna Fáil leader was also seen to visibly struggle with his emotions as he paid tribute to how ‘our children have tolerated my many absences over the years’.
He added: ‘As they have grown, studied and experienced the world, they have not just supported me, they have given Mary and I the benefit of their views of the Ireland which they have grown up with.’
Mr Martin married Mary O’Shea, whom he met at university, in 1989, and the couple have had five children. They experienced two tragedies. Their youngest daughter, Léana, died after suffering from a heart condition. A son, Ruairí, also died in infancy.
One source said: ‘They were terribly tough times but the family and the community rallied.’
The new Taoiseach paid tribute to his parents Paddy and Eileen and community, adding that he was ‘blessed to be born into the home which my late parents created for me and my brothers and sisters in the heart of the close-knit, working-class community which I have the enormous privilege of representing in Dáil Éireann’.
The Fianna Fáil leader said: ‘Every day my parents showed us the importance of supporting each other, of tough but fair competition and of the spirit of community.’
Referring to his late father, a champion boxer who went by the nickname of ‘Crusher’, Mr Martin said: ‘From my late father we learned not just of the great sporting achievements he saw; we learned of the characters and values of the heroes who were and remain immortal to us.’
A source close to Mr Martin said: ‘Micheál is as genuine a family man as they come. Family is everything to him.’ They added: ‘He relies very much on Mary, he is a bit of a protofeminist, he values female advice hugely.’
Sources from Cork said his wife and family are believed to be at a ‘close supporter’s house celebrating with family and friends’.
Another source added: ‘Micheál and Mary have a uniquely close relationship.
They are a bit like Jack and Máirín Lynch. Micheál and Mary have a shared fascination with history and with politics. He will be genuinely missing her.
‘The only place Micheál would want to be tonight is down in the Glen Rovers club house with his own singing about “the banks of the Lee”.
‘He is more of a creature of Cork than Jack Lynch, and Lynch won seven All-Irelands,’ they added.
‘Micheál is very proud of his working-class background. The Martins started with no advantages. He sees himself as being the proof that you can succeed.’
‘Without them I would have achieved nothing’