Mary Robinson's parents were both doctors and she was particularly influenced by her father. She was the only daughter in a Catholic family with four brothers, but they were brought up in an equal way and shared household tasks. Robinson thinks this gave her an advantage in life:
"Although I was the only girl I never had any sense that I was different or there was a limit on what I might do or achieve. My brothers were involved as much as I was in washing up and clearing out and keeping rooms tidy and there was no role stereotyping. And although there wasn't much discussion of equality, it was implicitly there, and I had more confidence as a teenager and as a female youngster in those days than I think a lot of my contemporaries."
She went to a convent boarding school and spent a year in France. She then studied law at Trinity College like her brothers. She continued her studies at Harvard University where she began to appreciate the possibilities offered by practising law…
"It was in 1967, there was great disquiet about the war in Vietnam, and the civil rights movement. It was a time when the top law graduates from Harvard were going into poverty programmes and not going into Wall Street firms. It was a time of great idealism and questioning about American society, about legal education and I found the confidence of law students and law graduates at the time really impressed me… they were young people who felt they had a role to play and they should be allowed to play it. And that wasn't the perception of young people in Ireland at the time."
She returned to Dublin, deeply affected by the confidence and idealism she had seen in the United States. At the age of 25 she became the youngest professor of law at Trinity College where she lectured whilst practising as a lawyer.
At this point the women's movement in Ireland was still very new, but having spent time in America, Mary Robinson believed that everything was possible. When the Irish Senate Elections were held in 1969, the University traditionally returned six senators but Robinson was ready to challenge the system.
"I posed the question why is it always elderly male professors and my colleagues said well you're right, why don't you stand. And I stood in 1969 and was elected very much against the odds - I mean being a Catholic, being female and being much younger than normal. It was the first time I understood that 3 disadvantages can turn to an advantage and you can win through. I then became involved in quite a controversial issue, because I promoted in early 1970 a bill to legalise the availability of contraceptives, and at the time that was extremely controversial. I received a lot of hate mail, a lot of public criticism, and I learned … a valuable lesson early in life and that is if you believe in something, keep your head down and pay the price of being unpopular in short term, but go ahead and stick to your principles."
Robinson was prepared to be unpopular in order to achieve what she believed in - to make it lawful for contraceptives to be available in Ireland. She married a Protestant lawyer, had three children and continued working as a lawyer. She gained a reputation in court for her work for women's causes and defence of human rights in Ireland.
I didn't set myself the goal of being President of Ireland (laughs). I was very surprised when I was approached by the Labour party, the smaller of the three main parties, and asked would I be their nominee and would I be prepared to go forward. Initially I wasn't enthusiastic, as it's a symbolic and figurehead role, and had been a very restricted role in Irish life. It was partly because there was going to be an election, and therefore the President would draw strength from being a directly elected representative that I began to see the interesting potential of the role.
Her success in the presidential elections was a big surprise - she had been thought least likely to win. She tried to expand the role to become an involved and in-touch President, meeting with women's groups and disadvantaged people from all over the Republic and Northern Ireland. Her most controversial moment came when she shook hands with Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Party, Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA. According to the Irish press, she was the most popular head of state in the world.
Her seven year Presidency ended in 1997 when she took up the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. As President, Robinson had been closely involved with development and human rights issues. She visited Somalia in 1992 and brought the Somali's experience to the world's attention - she was clearly moved when, at a press conference, she described what she'd seen.
I found that when I was there in … Baidoa, and Afgoye and Mogadishu, and this morning in Mandera, that I had no difficulty in remaining calm and in not letting my emotions show. And I am sorry that I cannot be entirely calm speaking to you because I have such a sense of what the world must take responsibility for.
Mary Robinson wants to provide a role model and to inspire confidence in other women to follow her lead.
"I think that times are changing. For example I … appointed a women judge of high court and present at the ceremony was the woman minister of justice and it was the attorney general who was the only man - providing some gender balance as I told him. And these changes are taking place and I certainly am a woman in a position of authority who wants to be a role model if I can and to encourage and very much to stimulate a sense of confidence and a sense of assuming responsibility."
Robinson has juggled her family - three children and a husband - with the responsibilities of her roles as President and High Commissioner. She stresses the importance of spending time together with the family, trying to live a normal life.
"I do think it's very important for me that my family remains as close as we have always been and one way I must say is a very determined wish on all sides, a wish on my children's part, my husband and myself is to keep them out of the limelight and to be as private as possible and to let them lead as ordinary lives as they always did with their friends - it's as normal as can manage and we also spend as much time as possible together."
Haleh Afshar, Professor of Politics and Women's Studies at York University, summarises her achievements:
Mary Robinson is a superb example of a woman politician who puts her humanity very much at the forefront of her politics. And of course I'm sure she's had to be tough, feisty but she really has always remained on the human side, she's really always kept people, their poverty, their suffering very much at the forefront of her discussions, and she's never lost sight of the needy. So in a sense she is perhaps the most people-oriented of all politicians and the one who has shown her sensitivity, who's kept herself as a vulnerable person, who hasn't had a hard front and for that I admire her enormously.
Back to main page
Who is she?
