Maeve Hillery
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Infobox person Maeve Hillery (Template:Nee; 14 August 1924 – 10 January 2015) was an Irish anaesthetist who was the wife of the 6th President of Ireland, Patrick Hillery.
Life and familyEdit
Mary Beatrice Finnegan was born on 14 August 1924<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Her father was a builder from Galway, and her mother was half-Irish. Hillery would holiday in Ireland as a child, and, during World War II, she attended a boarding school in Galway for a year. She entered University College Galway (UCG), and qualified as a doctor. She then attended University College Dublin (UCD), where she studied to become an anaesthetist.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref> It was here that she met her future husband, Patrick Hillery, who was also studying medicine.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She worked in Jervis Street Hospital, St James' Hospital, and in Sheffield.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref> The couple married on 27 October 1955.<ref name=":0" /> The Hillerys practised medicine together in Milltown Malbay while her husband was a TD.<ref name=":2" /> Together they had a son, John, and an adopted daughter, Vivienne. Vivienne died in 1987<ref name=":0" /> from leukemia.<ref name=":2" />
Hillery died in Dublin, on 10 January 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was buried in St Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton.<ref name=":1" />
CareerEdit
Hillery's husband served in a number of political roles, including foreign minister and European Commissioner. After the completion of his term as a European Commissioner in 1976, he contemplated leaving politics and returning to medicine. Instead, Hillery was asked to become the sixth President of Ireland.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The woollen cloak she worn to her husband's inauguration as president is now held in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She used a number of Irish designers during her 13 years in Áras an Uachtaráin, highlighting Irish design and materials.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
During the few rare interviews Hillery gave she spoke about the enormous upkeep and maintenance the presidential residence required, its unsuitability as a family home, and undertook the restoration of parts of the house. Due to her husband's career, Hillery did give up practising medicine, but she undertook a course in public health at University of Louvain, and a diploma in child care.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> She maintained a particular interest in children's mental health, was part of a research committee at St Michael's House, and worked with Dr Victoria Coffey on her study of Down Syndrome. She also learnt Irish Sign Language.<ref name=":3" />
Hillery served as the patron and president of a number of charities and voluntary groups including the Ana Liffey Drug Project,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Care Alliance Ireland,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Femscan,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped, and the Association for Deaf Children.<ref name=":3" /> She was among a number of prominent Irish women who contributed recipes to a book, Welcome To Our Kitchen, which was produced by Femscan to raise money towards Ireland's first mobile breast cancer screening unit.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
ReferencesEdit
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