Nuala Fennell (néeCampbell; 25 November 1935 – 11 August 2009) was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist and activist who served as Minister of State from December 1982 to January 1987 with responsibility for Women's Affairs and Family Law. She served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South from 1981 to 1987 and 1989 to 1992. She also served as a Senator from 1987 to 1989.[1]
Early life
Born Fionnuala Campbell in north County Dublin on 25 November 1935, the third eldest child of Patrick Campbell, from the rural east County Galway area of Lisheennavannoge, one of the earliest Garda recruits, and his wife Elizabeth (née Roberts), from Glasnevin, Dublin. Fennell had two sisters and three brothers.[2] She met her future husband, Brian Fennell, at the Templeogue Tennis Club, and they emigrated in 1957 to Montreal, Canada, where they were both employed by the Sun Life Company. The couple returned to Dublin and were married in 1958. Fennell took up secretarial employment in a legal firm in Dublin, at a time when married women were frowned upon for working. The couple had three children.[2]
Activist
Fennell was a leading Women's Rights campaigner in the 1970s when she was part of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, from which she resigned due to differences of policy in 1971.[3] Fennell was involved in setting up the first refuge for "battered women" in Dublin.[4] She was involved in the 1975 campaign for the right to divorce in Ireland.[5] In 1972, she helped found Action, Information and Motivation (AIM), a pressure group campaigning for women's equality in marriage.[2] In 1975, Fennell also became an executive member of the Council for the Status of Women.[2]
^Fennell, Nuala (2002). "Irish Women's Liberation Movement". The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. Vol. 5. New York University Press. p. 202. ISBN0814799078.
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