took a strongly supportive position on the legalisation of divorce, which was defeated in a referendum in 1986, and frequently suggested that she supported the liberalisation of Ireland's abortion ban. A member of Fine Gael's liberal wing, which included Monica Barnes, Nuala Fennell, Alan Shatter and Alan Dukes, she was disliked by the conservative wing of the party which included TDs like Oliver J. Flanagan, Alice Glenn and Gerry L'Estrange. During a meeting with Keith Joseph, British Secretary of State for Education, Joseph boasted to Hussey that he held surgeries once a month, which was considered a high number in Britain. Hussey responded that she had to do clinics three days every week to hold on to her seat as a TD. The book of her cabinet diaries, At the Cutting Edge, published in 1990, was hailed as the most thorough and realistic account of life inside the cabinet in Ireland. She retired from politics at the 1989 general election. In 1990, she was sharply criticised within her party for suggesting that she might support the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mary Robinson, a feminist, over the official Fine Gael candidate Austin Currie. Mary Robinson went on to become Ireland's first female President. An enthusiastic Europhile, Hussey spends a lot of her time now promoting the advancement of women in politics around the European Union. In the lead-up to the 1997 presidential election, Hussey was mentioned as a possible Fine Gael candidate, and was predicted to do well across Dublin and in her native Wicklow constituency and among supporters of Fine Gael and of the Progressive Democrats. In the event the party nomination went to Mary Banotti, who lost heavily to Mary McAleese in the election. References Bibliography Hussey, Gemma: At the Cutting Edge: Cabinet Diaries, 1982–1987 (Dublin, 1990) Hussey, Gemma: Ireland Today: Anatomy of a Changing State (London, 1993) 1938 births Living people Alumni of University College Dublin Fine Gael TDs Fine Gael senators Independent members of Seanad Éireann Members of Seanad Éireann for the National University of Ireland Members of the 14th Seanad Members of the 15th Seanad 20th-century women members of Seanad Éireann Members of the 23rd Dáil Members of the 24th Dáil Members of the 25th Dáil 20th-century women Teachtaí Dála Ministers for Education (Ireland) Ministers for Social Affairs (Ireland) Politicians from County Dublin Presidential appointees to the Council of State (Ireland) Women government ministers of the