Born: December 21st, 1958
Died: April 25th, 2023
The former Fianna Fáil press director Mary Kerrigan, who has died aged 64, enjoyed great success in the fields of journalism, law and public service, but politics was always her first love.
While her teenage friends hung posters of the Rolling Stones and David Bowie on their bedroom walls, she displayed posters of politicians, recalled former EU Commissioner Ray MacSharry in delivering the eulogy at her funeral.
He remembers her late father driving around on the election campaign trail for Fianna Fáil, and Mary was always in the back seat, observing everything. “She had a great interest in public affairs, loved public meetings, loved the cut and thrust,” he said.
She was the eldest child of three children, born to Phonsie Kerrigan and Maura Ruddy in Dublin. Her Donegal-born father met her Sligo-born mother when he worked as an accountant at the Gowna factory in Tubbercurry.
Her appointment by Fianna Fáil was seen as an attempt to modernise the party’s image
They returned to Tubbercurry with their young family in 1966, later settling in Wine Street, Sligo. Their home was a stone’s throw from the Sligo Champion office, so when it came to choosing a work placement during her journalism course at the College of Commerce in Rathmines, the local paper was a natural choice.
After graduating in 1976, Kerrigan worked at the Irish Independent and then the Evening Herald, as a finance reporter and sub-editor. She moved across the Liffey to Burgh Quay in 1978, when she joined the Irish Press newspaper group. Over the following 15 years, she worked on the Evening Press and Sunday Press titles, covering a variety of areas, including features, fashion and news.
Her former Irish Press colleague Stephen Collins described her as “a joyous presence” in the office. Other colleagues remembered a warm, witty and clever journalist.
Kerrigan was deputy features editor at the Sunday Press in 1993 when she left to become Fianna Fáil’s new press director – the first woman to hold such a post. Working with then taoiseach Albert Reynolds, her appointment was seen as an attempt to modernise the party’s image and bring a greater professionalism to its approach to communications.
She was credited with reorganising the press office, popularising the use of advertising agencies, and bringing in polling and research agencies to gauge the public mood.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin met her often in Leinster House, and remembered her as a sincere person who was great fun and lived life to the full. “She loved politics and, of course, journalism,” he said.
Kerrigan returned to the Sunday Press as deputy editor and news editor in 1995. However, it was a short-lived stint as, two weeks later, it was announced that the newspaper group was facing closure.
A brief dalliance with radio followed, and she became deputy editor of the new national news service Independent Network News (INN) in 1997. She returned to print journalism a few months later when she was appointed political correspondent of the new national newspaper Ireland On Sunday.
Kindness was a word used more than once to characterise Mary. But she was much else, as her varied career shows
Her interest in the law led her to the King’s Inns, and she was called to the Bar in 1998. The following nine years would see her practising on the Dublin and midlands circuit. She was part of the legal team representing the then Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, when the Morris Tribunal investigated allegations of Garda corruption in Co Donegal.
She also provided counsel for the Department of Education in the hearings of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, set up in 2000 to investigate child abuse in institutions.
Kerrigan’s career path took another twist in 2007 when she went to Brussels to work for then EU internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy. Her legal experience was called into play when she worked on areas such as intellectual property rights.
This was followed by another overseas appointment, this time to the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg where she worked in the office of the court’s Irish member, barrister and accountant Eoin O’Shea. She later became chef de cabinet for his successor Kevin Cardiff, the former Department of Finance secretary general, who recalled that he always appreciated her wisdom, honesty and humour. “Kindness was a word used more than once to characterise Mary. But she was much else, as her varied career shows,” he wrote in an online tribute.
Kerrigan returned to Ireland in 2015 and began working with the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman the following year, mediating between complainants and financial service providers. She was a council member of the Mediators Institute of Ireland for many years, and also found time to serve on the boards of the Independent Radio and Television Commission and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.
She wrote That’s Politics (a guide to the European and local elections) in 2004, and won awards for her writing, including an AT Cross Woman Journalism award in 1984.
Her interest in the law led her to the King’s Inns, and she was called to the Bar in 1998
Early in her career, Kerrigan married photographer Matt Kavanagh, but the couple divorced many years ago.
Her sister Majella said she was adored by her nieces and nephews and was the “kindest, loving, cleverest sister and full of fun with a twinkle in her eye”.
Despite her varied career, she never lost her fascination with politics, and could happily talk about constituency boundaries and marginal seats for hours on end. While she had a keen sense of style, she had no time for the drudgery of housework, and friends marvelled at her ability to emerge from domestic chaos with the elegance and panache of a movie star.
She moved to Blackrock Hospice in March after a long illness. Many people noted her unflinching courage in the last months of her life. She never showed any fear about what lay ahead, and was completely at peace with herself. And while she might have left the media behind years earlier, she made one last television appearance in March, when Virgin Media News’s Paul Quinn interviewed her as part of a report on the refurbishment of the hospice.
In that interview, she described the hospice as “a piece of heaven” and a gentle and caring place. Talking about the many gifts she had received from friends, she joked that if she made a Lazarus-like recovery, she might have to return them all. She died less than four weeks after that interview, surrounded by her family.
Mary Kerrigan is survived by her mother Maura, sister Majella, brother Peter and extended family. She was predeceased by her father Phonsie.