Geraldine Kennedy (born 1 September 1951) is an Irish journalist and politician who served as the first female editor of The Irish Times newspaper. She previously served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dún Laoghaire constituency from 1987 to 1989. In 1982, Kennedy's telephone, along with those of two other journalists, was tapped by former Minister for Justice Seán Doherty. The revelation in 1992 that Charles Haughey had ordered the phone taps led to Haughey's resignation as Taoiseach. Early career Kennedy studied at Dublin Institute of Technology and began her journalistic career with a regional newspaper, the Munster Express. She moved to the Cork Examiner after less than a year, but spent only a few years there before joining The Irish Times. On the foundation of the Sunday Tribune in 1980, Kennedy joined it as the paper's political correspondent. The paper's publisher, John Mulcahy, had become familiar with Kennedy when she had contributed to his journal Hibernia. When the Tribune briefly ceased production, Kennedy moved to the Sunday Press. Early in 1987, Kennedy successfully sued the incumbent Charles Haughey-led Fianna Fáil government for illegally tapping her phone. Political career Kennedy stood in the 1987 general election as a candidate for the newly formed Progressive Democrat party in Dún Laoghaire. She came third in the poll, winning 9.4% of the first-preference vote. She was one of fourteen Progressive Democrat TDs elected to Dáil Éireann in that election — a feat the party never achieved again. Kennedy was appointed the party's spokesperson for foreign affairs. She stood again in the 1989 general election and won 9% of the first-preference vote but failed to retain her seat. Return to journalism Following her election defeat, Kennedy returned to The Irish Times, then edited by Conor Brady, whom she had worked with at the Tribune when he was the editor. She avoided party-political journalism for several years, but she returned to covering politics in the early 1990s, and became The Irish Times''' political editor in 1999. She became the newspaper's first female editor upon the departure of Conor Brady in late 2002. One of her rivals for the editor's chair was the paper's high-profile columnist, Fintan O'Toole.Fintan O'Toole: Ship of fools: how stupidity and corruption sank the Celtic Tiger. Faber and Faber, 2009. Kennedy was paid more than the editor of Britain's top non-tabloid newspaper The Daily Telegraph, which has a circulation of about