Síle de Valera

Síle de Valera (born December 17, 1954 in Dublin ) is an Irish politician of the Fianna Fáil .

biography

Síle de Valera is the granddaughter of Éamon de Valera , the long-time Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) and President of Ireland . In addition, she is a cousin of the politician Éamon Ó Cuív .

She herself initially worked as a career counseling teacher, but began her political career early on as a candidate for the Fianna Fáil in 1977 with her first election to the House of Commons ( Dáil Éireann ). There she was the youngest MP for the constituency of Dublin County Mid and took over the unofficial title "Baby of the Dáil" from Enda Kenny . At the same time she was a member of the 1st European Parliament between June 1979 and June 1984 . In the 1981 general election, however, she suffered a defeat and initially left the lower house.

In 1987 she was re-elected to the House of Commons and, after four subsequent re-elections, she represented the constituency of Clare until 2007 .

After the Fianna Fáil electoral victory, she was appointed Minister for Art, Inheritance, Irish-Speaking Areas ( Gaeltacht ) and the Islands by Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on June 26, 1997 , and held this post until June 18, 2002. She then became Minister of State in Ministry of Education and Science, while her cousin Éamon Ó Cuív succeeded as Minister for Community, Rural and Irish-speaking Areas. On December 8, 2006, she resigned as Minister of State and decided not to run again in the 2007 general election.

Web links

• Homepage of the Oireachtas
• Irish Ministeries (rulers.org)
• Entry on Síle de Valera in the database of Members of the European Parliament