Many people who never knew Mrs Winifred Delaney, and perhaps never even knew her name, will benefit from her long campaign to secure adequate pension benefits for the widows of civil servants.
In 1963, when Winifred lost her civil service husband, Tom Delaney, there was no provision at all for widows of civil servants who died in service. Their husbands' pension rights were deemed to have died with them, and apart from a lump-sum payment, widows and their children were left entirely to charity and to their own resources. It sounds incredible now.
In 1968, after a long campaign, changes were made introducing pension rights for future widows of civil servants: but existing widows (before July 23rd, 1968) were expressly excluded from the benefits of the scheme. Male civil servants, one presumes, solemnly advised the Minister that any concession to the widows of their former colleagues would be unwarranted. This is only 30 years ago.
The situation might still be the same but for the efforts of two young widows - Mrs Rita Fay and Mrs Winifred Delaney - each of whom had a young family to raise and educate. They decided to form an association to campaign for the inclusion of the so-called pre-1968 widows in the scheme. They gathered together all the widows they could trace - some 2,000 - and began a long and arduous series of meetings, letters and lobbyings to make their situation more widely known.
Eventually - and thanks in part to the support of The Irish Times and other media - these widows were granted a so-called ex-gratia pension equal to one-eighth of the husband's salary. The association continued to campaign and to publicise the issue when any occasion offered, and small increases were allowed in subsequent Budgets. Finally, in 1986, the pre-1968 widows were granted the full pension. By this time, of course, many of them had long since died, including Mrs Fay.
Mrs Delaney herself died on October 2nd last. She truly had a tragic life. Left with a young family to raise and bring to third-level education, she succeeded in spite of all the obstacles. Two sons, Tom and Jim, predeceased her in their thirties, but she remained cheerful and positive all her life.
We extend our deepest sympathy to her surviving family, Mia, Peter and Wyn, to her grandchildren and to all her friends.
B. Ui E.