The people of Laois and Ireland will go to the polls on Friday as the 2024 Local and European election voting will take place.
As part of our coverage, we decided to seek out some former county councillors from across the political spectrum to tell their stories.
Next up on our series is someone who broke the glass ceiling – well before that expression ever became a thing.
We recently headed down to South Laois and were welcomed into the home of Mary Wheatley.
Mary lives in Doonane which is located just outside Crettyard and Newtown.
Her farm and its lands actually run right up to the border with Kilkenny – with Mary’s brother Eugene showing us where Laois ends and Kilkenny starts before we head into the house.
Inside, Mary is expecting us but she is in the middle of a very important card game with her friend Margaret Brennan.
But the cards are soon put away and cups of tea come out, the chat flows and as we get down to business.
Mary Wheatley is a fascinating person. She was elected to Laois County Council in 1985 for Fianna Fail in the Luggacurran area.
It was a remarkable feat at the time as she became the first ever woman to win a seat – followed by Cathy Honan of the Progressive Democrats in 1991.
Mary was born in 1939 in The Swan – the year that World War II broke out.
The family moved to Crissard and Mary walked three miles over and back to Wolfhill National School every day for primary education.
In 1955, when Mary was 16, the Wheatley family purchased the farm in Doonane that she still lives in today.
She left school at that stage and got a job in Wolfhill Coalmines where she did everything from general admin to accounting and audits.
Looking back on it all now, Mary says that her initial interest in politics came from her parents.
“My father and mother were always interested in politics,” Mary said.
“During and after World War II, I always remember my father would buy the paper and read it while eating his dinner.
“My mother would ask him what was going on and he would explain to her – and we would always be listening.
“Mammy’s cousins were active during War of Independence. Some of them with de Valera and others down in Cork with Michael Collins.
“In the Barrowhouse Ambush tragedy in 1921, two young local men – William Connor and James Lacey – lost their lives – Connor was related to my mother.
Photo: Alf Harvey.
“So that was where the interest came from. I remember when an election would be on, my father had a Ford Prefect car and he used to drive people down to vote.”
But how did she end up in Fianna Fail? Mary says that a man from Kanturk in Cork is to thank for that.
She said: “I worked with a man called Jim O’Connor from Kanturk in Cork and he roped me in one day to go to a Cumann meeting in The Swan for the Lugacurran area.
“Paddy Lalor was the local TD at the time and he later became Minister for Post and Telegraphs.
“My father knew him and I had been in touch with him before over different things.
“I remember he came in, I was the only woman in the room, and he stopped dead and said ‘where did you come from? What are you doing here?
“Willie Headen from Timahoe was chairing the meeting and he told Paddy that he was ‘to leave the woman alone. We are looking to get women into the party and you are trying to frighten them out’.
“That settled that. Jim was the secretary of the Luggarcurran area and he stepped down the following year and proposed that I take over – which I did.”
After serving as secretary, the 1985 Local Election soon came around and Mary recalls how she ended up running.
She said: “Two neighbours, Andy Rohan and Edward Delaney, put my name forward to contest a seat for Fianna Fail.
Picture: Alf Harvey.
“Everyone was gone to a match that day and there was only a few of us at home.
“I didn’t know what to do. I remember kneeling down on the stairs at home and saying a prayer for guidance on what I should do.
“Betty, my sister, said to mammy that they would never me if I got elected.
“But mammy said that she never stopped any of us from doing anything and that was the sign I needed. I rang Liam Hyland, who was a TD at the time, and told him I was in.
“I remember the night of the selection convention, I was sitting with the late Danny Brennan of Arles-Killeen – I used to work with his father.
“When I was nominated, Danny turned to me and said ‘I think they are in for a surprise with you’ and he wasn’t wrong, Danny was a smart one.”
Fianna Fail won 14 of the 25 seats in Laois in 1985 – including three of the available four in Mary’s area of Luggacurran.
After receiving 556 first preference votes, Mary was eventually elected on the seventh count alongside party colleagues Martin Rohan, James Cooney and Fine Gael’s Charles McDonald.
Mary said: “I wasn’t expected to win. The party put me in so that they would have three candidates but they never expected I would win a seat.
“I understood what it meant for other women. It showed them that they could do it too and that they could do anything they wanted – because at that time a woman would have to give up her job if she got married.
“It was the first time Fianna Fail had the majority and Liam Hyland topped the poll in Borris-In-Ossory.
“He was a TD and at that time you could do both. They changed that sometime after and I never agreed with it.
“When you were a TD and a Councillor, you had your finger on the pulse for local issues and could get stuff done in the Dail quicker.”
Mary recalls her first meeting in the chamber of Laois County Council – and how it almost didn’t happen thanks to her love and involvement in Ladies Gaelic football.
In 1976, Mary was a founding member of her local club, Crettyard Ladies Gaelic Football Club.
Over the decades, Mary’s input has been invaluable and she has held several different positions at Leinster Council level including three terms as President.
After eight years acting as National Treasurer, she was appointed President of the Ladies Gaelic Association from 1988 to 1991 where she worked constantly to promote the game.
She was the chairperson of Laois Ladies from 1979 to 2003 and deservedly entered the LGFA Hall of Fame in 2005 for her extraordinary dedication to Ladies Gaelic Football.
Back in 1985, the day before the first meeting of the new Laois County Council, Connie Conway, another legend of the sport, contacted Mary with a problem.
Mary said: “Connie rang. She had a practice match arranged in Dublin and asked me to drive a bus of players up to the match.
“We stopped in a chipper on the way back and it was after midnight when we got home.
“I woke up at 6am in the morning with vomiting and diarrhea – food poisoning from what I had eaten.
“So I went to Dr McDermott and he told me I would have to go to bed for two days. I told him I can’t – ‘I’m the first lady elected and I can’t not show up on the first day’.
“So he gave me an injection and sent me back to bed. But I got up and went on – I was shaky but I made it in.
“At the meeting, the county manager went around one by one and asked everyone what they wanted to achieve over the five years.
“So I said I’d like to see something done about arts and sports in the county – and I could hear a few giggles – because up to that it was all about roads and that type of thing.
“Michael Digen was the county manager and in summing up, he said that he got two great things today from our newest Councillor.
“Now we have a sports officer and an arts officer ever since.”
Mary fought elections in 1991 and 1999 where she was successfully re-elected and she served as mayor of Laois from 1997 to 1998.
Mary said: “I always said that I wanted to have that role before my time in office would end.
“It would now be known as the Cathaoirleach and it was a job that a thoroughly enjoyed because I got to work with Louis Brennan who was acting county manager at the time and he was great.
“I got to chair the meetings and I had great liaison officers with me which made the job enjoyable. I loved representing Laois.”
Mary spent 19 years in Laois County Council until she lost her seat in the 2004 election to her party colleague Dick Miller.
20 years after that election, Mary says she is still incredibly disappointed with how it all ended.
Mary said: “I was in the supermarket in Rathdowney and I fell over the basket.
“I was canvassing at the time and I had to go back to Dr McDermott with my leg because the pain was so bad.
“He told me it was either my leg or the politics. So that left me with no choice really.
“I was terrible disappointed though when I lost the seat. The injury meant I couldn’t canvass but the party had set out against me – members of it.”
With Friday’s election just days away – Mary still follows politics intently but she says she doesn’t tie herself down to just voting for Fianna Fail.
She said: “I follow it and I like to know what is happening but I don’t only just vote Fianna Fail.
“I go with who does things for me. I vote local mostly. Ben Brennan (Independent) is a great local men.
“Ben was Fianna Fail and they brought in this thing where you have to go for an interview with all the head lads before selection – a load of codswallop.
“They didn’t recommend Ben. I remember him coming here to me in 2009 to ask me was I certain that I wouldn’t run again – so I told him I wasn’t and that he should go himself.
“If the party were watching, they should have known that this area has never been without a Councillor so they really missed a trick by letting Ben go.
“They elect their own man around here.”
Sharp as a tack, Mary will be watching the results of the upcoming election with keen interest.
SEE ALSO – Dick Miller Interview: GAA, the Council and Timahoe – a lifetime of local service
