Alice Glenn

Alice Glenn (; 17 December 1921 – 16 December 2011) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987.

Although only briefly a part of national politics in Ireland, Glenn became one of the most prominent voices of social conservatism in Ireland in the 1980s and was particularly eminent during the 1986 referendum on divorce. Glenn was an outspoken critic of contraceptives, abortion, divorce and other attempts to liberalise Irish society, and much of her commentary was deemed memorable and influential. However, Glenn's political career ended in late 1986 when it emerged to the public that Glenn had called the leaders of every religion but Catholicism in Ireland "enemies of the people". Glenn refused to retract the comments and she was widely condemned as sectarian and bigoted, including by members of her own party. Glenn resigned rather than be expelled by Fine Gael, and attempted to stand as an independent at the 1987 general election, but her vote collapsed. She remained in local politics until 1991 but thereafter exited public life.

Early and private life She was born in 1921 at Usher's Quay, Dublin, the eldest of ten children of (Arthur) Leo Duffy, a car mechanic, and his wife Mary (née Joyce), a dressmaker.

Political career Dublin City Councillor Glenn was raised in a family which had always supported Fine Gael and thus was so inclined herself. However, she was not formally a member of the party until she became incensed by the decisions of Fianna Fáil ministers during the onset of the Troubles in 1970. Already active in a number of women's social clubs in inner-city Dublin, Glenn joined her local Fine Gael branch and rapidly advanced in seniority. At the 1973 Irish general election was placed up for election in Dublin North-Central as one of the very few women candidates of that entire election. Although she did not get elected, she polled well enough for Fine Gael to place long-term confidence in her. Glenn rebounded by becoming a Dublin City Councillor for the Drumcondra local electoral area the next year in 1974. Her husband William brushed aside suggestions that Alice's political career could damage his prospects in the Air Force and remained supportive of her ambitions.

National politics Glenn entered into her first full term as a TD, and into her period of greatest prominence within Irish politics.

In April 1983, Glenn was one of eight Fine Gael TDs to defy the party and vote against the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition's proposed wording to the constitutional amendment on abortion. The government's wording included a negative prohibition, namely that nothing in the constitution should be interpreted as granting a right to abortion. Glenn, along with Joe Doyle and other colleagues endorsed the Fianna Fáil alternative wording that granted a "right to life to the unborn, with due regard to the equal right of the mother".

By now Glenn was becoming the female face of conservatism in Ireland, and many journalists and commentators began to compare Glenn to the United Kingdom's Margaret Thatcher. Glenn also supported the Contra forces in Nicaragua. The line became one of the most often discussed and quoted sentiments of the campaign. Fine Gael immediately released an official statement repudiating Glenn's comments and many fellow Fine Gael TDs such as Alan Shatter condemned the comments as sectarian, however, Glenn herself declared she "stood over every word". and on 9 December 1986, she resigned from the Fine Gael parliamentary party ahead of a proposed motion to expel her.

She fought the 1987 general election as an independent candidate but failed to be elected, polling 4% of the vote and losing her deposit. She retired from politics following the loss of her Dublin City Council seat in 1991. Unusually for a member of Fine Gael, she also cited the founder of their primary rival Fianna Fáil Éamon de Valera as an inspiration, specifically praising his social conservatism by stating "Thank God for Dev and what he has done. Thank God for his Constitution and its moral values; what he did was right.”