Alice Glenn

Alice Glenn (Duffy; 17 December 1921 – 16 December 2011) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987.

She was born in 1921 at Usher's Quay, Dublin, the eldest of ten children of (Arthur) Leo Duffy, a car mechanic, and his wife Mary (née Joyce), a dressmaker.

She grew up on the quays, later moving with her family out to the inner suburb of Cabra.

She was educated locally before attending the Haslem School of Dress Designing.

She subsequently worked as a dressmaker.

In April 1949 she married William Glenn, who at that time was a cadet in the Irish Air Force.

The early years of their marriage were marked by tragedy and difficulty; following the birth of their first child, Alice suffered two stillbirths.

The second stillbirth heavily damaged Alice's internal health and required extensive surgeries to treat.

In the aftermath, she suffered for many years from depression, lasting until the birth of her second child.

Glenn was raised in a family which had always supported Fine Gael and thus was so inclined herself.

However, she was not formally a member of the party until she became incensed by the decisions of Fianna Fáil ministers during the onset of the Troubles in 1970.

Already active in a number of women's social clubs in inner-city Dublin, Glenn joined her local Fine Gael branch and rapidly advanced in seniority.

At the 1973 Irish general election was placed up for election in Dublin North-Central as one of the very few women candidates of that entire election.

Although she did not get elected, she polled well enough for Fine Gael to place long-term confidence in her.

Glenn rebounded by becoming a Dublin City Councillor for the Drumcondra local electoral area the next year in 1974.

Her husband William brushed aside suggestions that Alice's political career could damage his prospects in the Air Force and remained supportive of her ambitions.

Glenn was an unsuccessful candidate for Dublin Finglas constituency at the 1977 general election.

In-fighting with her running mate Luke Belton was partially to blame for the result, as was a redrawing of constituency boundaries (The 1977 election was the only election in which the Dublin Finglas constituency was contested).

An early example of her conservatism was demonstrated in 1978 when Glenn made a speech in which she suggested 10,000 Irish women should give up their jobs in the public sector in order to decrease men's unemployment.

Further feuding with Belton would see Glenn denied the office of Lord Mayor of Dublin in both 1978 and 1980, and in 1980 Belton was almost successful in pulling Glenn from Fine Gael's local election ticket until party leader Garret FitzGerald personally intervened.

Although only briefly a part of national politics in Ireland, Glenn became one of the most prominent voices of social conservatism in Ireland in the 1980s and was particularly eminent during the 1986 referendum on divorce.

Glenn was an outspoken critic of contraceptives, abortion, divorce and other attempts to liberalise Irish society, and much of her commentary was deemed memorable and influential.

It was at the 1981 general election that Glenn was elected to the Dáil when she became a TD for Dublin Central.

She would only be able to hold it for eight months after the government collapsed over a failed budget and she lost out at the first general election of 1982.

Glenn attempted to rebound by seeking to become a senator, however here too she was unsuccessful.

At the October 1982 Fine Gael ardfheis, Glenn embarrassed Garrett FitzGerald by reminding delegates of his pledge to introduce a constitutional amendment that would uphold the status quo on abortion in Ireland, a decision FitzGerald was in the process of reconsidering.

In the wake of having lost both a Dáil and Seanad election, once again an attempt was made to remove Glenn from the Fine Gael ticket in the run-up to the November 1982 election, however, Glenn survived and was able to regain her Dáil seat, beginning what would be a full five years in office uninterrupted.

Glenn entered into her first full term as a TD, and into her period of greatest prominence within Irish politics.

In April 1983, Glenn was one of eight Fine Gael TDs to defy the party and vote against the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition's proposed wording to the constitutional amendment on abortion.

The government's wording included a negative prohibition, namely that nothing in the constitution should be interpreted as granting a right to abortion.

Glenn, along with Joe Doyle and other colleagues endorsed the Fianna Fáil alternative wording that granted a "right to life to the unborn, with due regard to the equal right of the mother".

In November 1984, legislation to make contraception available to people over 18 was brought before the Dáil; Glenn remarked "What man wants anything to do with a girl who has been used and abused by any man who comes along with condoms?".

By now Glenn was becoming the female face of conservatism in Ireland, and many journalists and commentators began to compare Glenn to the United Kingdom's Margaret Thatcher.

It was a comparison that did not displease Glenn, and shortly thereafter she also publicly declare her admiration for the United States' Ronald Reagan.

In June 1984 she and her husband travelled to Taiwan to attend a congress of the World Anti-Communist League.

Glenn also supported the Contra forces in Nicaragua.

However, Glenn's political career ended in late 1986 when it emerged to the public that Glenn had called the leaders of every religion but Catholicism in Ireland "enemies of the people".

Glenn refused to retract the comments and she was widely condemned as sectarian and bigoted, including by members of her own party.

Glenn resigned rather than be expelled by Fine Gael, and attempted to stand as an independent at the 1987 general election, but her vote collapsed.

She remained in local politics until 1991 but thereafter exited public life.