Just Mary

Oh Mary: 1. Mary McAleese and Mary O’Rourke; 2. Norma Smurfit; 3. Michael McDowell and Charlie O’Connor. (Pix. Brian McEvoy)

Mary O’Rourke is known as someone who always speaks her mind. This forthright approach has made her one of Ireland’s best-loved public figures and is very much in evidence in her highly anticipated memoir, Just Mary.  The book was officially launched by former President Mary McAleese at the National Library recently at a reception that was well attended by the political elite.

Beginning with the February 2011 general election, the day her active political career ended, Mary O’Rourke reflects on key events in her working life, including her brother Brian Lenihan’s bid for the presidency, the Eircom sell-off, the infamous ‘St Valentine’s Day Massacre’ when Albert Reynolds took power, and party tensions in the run up to the most recent election. 

She describes life as a woman in the male world of politics, the sexism she sometimes had to deal with, and the difficulties of balancing her busy career with raising a family. Devastated as she was by her defeat in 2011, losing an election does not compare with losing loved ones and Mary has had more than her fair share of tragic losses over the years: the untimely death of her beloved husband Enda, her brothers Brian and Paddy, and more recently her nephew and former Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan - all of whom she remembers here.

Although they have become more frequent in recent years, Irish political memoirs are still relatively rare.  Even rarer still are political memoirs that are frank, newsworthy and fun, like this one from Mary O’Rourke.

Just Mary: A Memoir is published by Gill & Macmillan and is in shops now.

Mount Carmel upgrade

Hey Baby: 1. Pamela Fagan and Dearbhal McKee; 2. Virginia Macari; 3. Minister Alan Shatter TD and Peter Mathews TD. (Pix. Brian McEvoy)

Mount Carmel Private Hospital welcomed the official opening of its new state of the art patient facilities recently. The new refurbishment, which saw works being completed on a new Women’s Health Unit, was opened by Minister for Health Dr. James Reilly TD.

Operating Suite and Patient Services Centre will radically improve the quality of service and infrastructure for patients and staff in the years to come. The €600,000 refurbishment has created a number of new jobs in nursing and administration. In addition the Minister also presented the JCI Certificate to CEO, John O’Brien in recognition of the recent accreditation awarded by the Joint Commission International.

Joining Minister James Reilly was Virginia Macari and her partner Kaste Dahl. Virginia who was a patient at Mount Carmel, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on Monday!

Mount Carmel opened its doors in 1949 and throughout its proud history the philosophy has been to provide excellence in patient care in a safe patient environment supported by outstanding facilities and a dedicated nursing team. Mount Carmel is widely known for being the only private maternity hospital in the country.