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Gníomh na Polaitíochta

Women TDs 1993 Image Name: Women TDs 1993 Description: Women TD's in Dail Eireann in 1993. (left to right) Mary Flaherty (FG), Sile de Valera(FF), Niamh Bhreathnach (Lab), Mary Wallace (FF), Mary Harney (PD), Maire Geoghegan-Quinn (FF), Theresa Ahearn (FG), Liz O'Donnell (PD), Mairin Quill (PD), Joan Burton (Lab), Frances Fitzgerald (FG), Mary O'Rourke (FF), Eithne FitzGerald (Lab), Liz MacManus (Dem L.). Copyright: RTÉ Archives
Women TDs 1993 Image Name: Women TDs 1993 Description: Women TDs in Dail Eireann. (left to right) Frances Fitzgerald (FG), Eithne Fitzgerald (Lab), Mary Wallace (FF), Mairin Quill (PD), Sile de Valera (FF), Maire Geoghegan-Quinn (FF). Copyright: RTÉ Archives

Seo sraith cláracha faisnéise le polaiteoirí nach bhfuil gníomhach sa saol poiblí níos mó, agus ar maidin, beidh deis eile ag na héisteoirí an t-agallamh seo le Máirín Quill a chloisteáil a craoladh ag tús na sraithe i mí an Mheithimh.  Bhí Máirín ina comhairleoir contae, ina Teachta Dála agus ina Seanadóir do Chorcaigh.  Thug sí droim láimhe d’Fhianna Fáil i 1985 le dlús a chur le bunú an Pháirtí Dhaonlathaí, agus toghadh í chuig an 25ú Dáil mar iarrthóir don pháirtí sin cúpla bliain níos deireanaí.  Ar an gclár seo inniu deir sí nach raibh aon chathú uirthi páirtí Charlie Haughey a fhágáil mar ‘nach raibh meas madra aici air.’  Ghoill sé go mór uirthi gur thacaigh an Páirtí Daonlathach le Fianna Fáil chun Haughey a thoghadh mar Thaoiseach i 1989, ach ní raibh an dara rogha acu ach sin a dhéanamh, mar nach raibh aon duine, a dúirt sí, ag iarraidh tabhairt faoi olltoghchán eile an bhliain sin.  Insíonn sí scéal a saol polaitíochta do Shéamus Mac Donnchadha inniu.

This summer series featuring interviews with well-known politicians who are no longer active in public life is drawing to a close, but today listeners will get a second chance to hear an interview with Máirín Quill broadcast earlier in the series in June.  Máirín was a councillor, a TD and a Senator for Cork.  She turned her back on Fianna Fáil in 1985 to help establish the Progressive Democrats, and was one of the party candidates elected to the 25th Dáil a couple of years later.  On the programme today, she says that she has no regrets about the decision to leave Charlie Haughey’s party as she had no respect for it.  She was very disappointed that the PDs supported Fianna Fáil to elect Haughey as Taoiseach in 1989, but says they had no other choice as nobody wanted an election.  She tells the story of her political life to Séamus Mac Donnchadha today.