Senator Marie Louise O'Donnell

 

THE appointment by Taoiseach Enda Kenny of outspoken Mayo-born educationalist and broadcaster Marie-Louise O’Donnell to Seanad Éireann may have put a few noses out of joint, both inside and outside of the Fine Gael party locally and nationally.

But the reality is that he has placed a voice of honesty and understanding in the Upper House, a voice capable of championing the kind of radical reforms the authority urgently requires.

“I believe it was one of the reasons why Enda nominated me. He knows I will articulate the need for change with purpose and vision. I have been a taxpayer all of my life and I realise the Oireachtas as a whole must be answerable to the electorate.

 

“I have never had privilege in any aspect of my working life and I would not expect it. I am all for checks and balances. I am at an age when I am not afraid to be a biteen fearless.

 

“Enda Kenny is a man of his word and he will honour his commitment to hold a referendum on

 the future of the Senate. I have no qualms whatsoever with that,” she stated.

 

At the outset of her interview with The Connaught Telegraph, Senator O’Donnell strongly made the point that media suggestions she ridiculed or demeaned the people of Mayo in any way during an RTÉ Radio One broadcast of Taoiseach Kenny’s homecoming last March were completely without foundation.

The remarks, which caused offense in some quarters, were made when she was describing the scene at a packed TF Royal Hotel and Theatre on the night in question.

Her report went along the following lines: “I knew I was in the west because I got a seat up on the balcony looking down on the sea of people who had that kind of whiff of human haze of the west of Ireland.

“The smell of turf and porridge and tweed and prayer and the clothes and the jackets and the huge mass of people.

“They have great wonderful wide faces, sparkly eyes and thick wiry hair and kind of big ears, bright dancing eyes and great Mayo tones and great manners and great strength.”

Commenting on the negative reaction to her account, she said: “I was so hurt when I learned that some people took it badly.

“I was simply using poetic memory to describe the event. The memories were of my own time growing up in Mayo, a county I deeply love. I would never say anything bad about Mayo and its people. I was upset that some people did not see it that way.

“Those who knew me for my love of imagery and art recognised exactly what I was saying. It’s a source of regret to me that umbrage was taken because it was far from my intention.”

Senator O’Donnell, who is poised to bring a breath of fresh air to national politics, was born at Main Street, Foxford, in a house her parents, Frank and Maire, shared with her grandmother, Ann Catherine Sherry.

Her late father worked at Foxford Woolen Mills before the O’Donnell family moved to live in Dublin when Mary Louise was aged six. However, regular and extended visits to Foxford became an integral part of her life and she hopes to spend her retirement years in the area.

“I consider myself a Mayo woman through and through. I attended the Mayo Convention in Westport on the weekend before last. I dropped over to Foxford to visit the grave of my father at Craggagh Cemetery. ”

Her interest in politics was inspired by the late John Kelly, the distinguished academic who was a TD from 1976 to 1989 and served a term as Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism.

She got to know Enda Kenny over 20 years ago when she started lecturing at Dublin City University (DCU) as he visited the institute on a regular basis to give talks on the role of a TD.

She admitted being ‘extremely surprised’ by the news of her appointment to the Senate.

“I did not respect it but I regarded it as an affirmation and recognition of a life working in third level education and I intend to serve with clarity of purpose, vision and action.

“I have a very simple idea about definitions of education and indeed my own approach to it as a lecturer in DCU.

“At what I describe as ‘the deep hearts core of education’ lies the quality of imagination and energy.

“The kind of imagination which allows us to know that new things and new ways, fresh combinations and unearthed ideas, can happen, can exist and can belong.

“And the understanding that energy is the propeller and the fuse which can bring all these elements into being.

“Now, more than ever in Ireland, we need this combination. I hope to bring both of these qualities to the Seanad,” she explained.

Senator O’Donnell enjoys the profile that her work on the Pat Kenny Show on RTÉ Radio One has given her. But she prefers to avoid television where possible.

“I have appeared on Vincent Browne’s programme on TV3 quite a bit. But I feel the medium exaggerates how you look, what you say and how you say it. It is melodramatic. I much prefer the freedom radio offers.”

A former actor and theatre administrator, Marie-Louise was also involved in setting up the Helix Theatre in 2002.

Her contributions to Seanad Éireann will certainly be watched very closely from a multiplicity of angles.

Foxford can be proud of her.