Sheila Conroy

Sheila Conroy (22 April 1918 – 11 May 2012) was an Irish trade union leader and activist. She was the first women elected to the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union's national executive committee and in 1976 she became chair of the RTÉ Authority, making her the first woman to chair an Irish semi-state body.

Early life and education Sheila Conroy was born Sheila Williams in Bantry, County Cork on 22 April 1918 (or possibly 4 April 1917). She was the only child of Harry and Jane Williams. Her father was a Welsh petty officer in the Royal Navy who was stationed in Bantry from 1914 to 1918. Her mother's family disowned her due to the marriage. After the death of her mother from tuberculosis soon after Conroy was born, she was fostered by a local family until she was 6, with her father sending an allowance from his new posting. She had suffered from pneumonia as an infant, and was cared for by and later attended the national school of the Sisters of Mercy in Bantry. She moved to the convent in Cobh, where she attended St Maries of the Isle secondary school in Cork city. She suffered further ill health, throat infections and scarlet fever, which led to her leaving school after a year at age 14. She never tried to make contact with her maternal family, fearing they would reject her.

Early career and union work She was apprenticed to a small confectionery firm in Cork in 1937, with the allowance from her father paying for her accommodation. She lost that job in 1939, and took up a position as a trainee waitress at the Victoria Hotel, Cork. Owing to the working conditions at the hotel, Conroy organised a secret operation to affiliate the staff with the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU). She moved to Dublin in 1944, working at the Capitol Theatre as a waitress and started studying at the College of Catering on Cathal Brugha Street. She was the shop steward for ITGWU members at the Capitol, and became involved in the union's branch which served hotel, restaurant and catering staff (no. 4 branch) in Dublin, the membership of which was predominately women. At the 1952 AGM, she was elected to the branch committee, and was a delegate at the ITGWU annual conference in the summer of the same year.

Conroy was appointed to the Commission on the Status of Women, chaired by Thekla Beere, in 1970. The commission was tasked with assessing women's pay and employment conditions, and resulted in 49 recommendations being made to the government in its 1972 report. The report led to the abolition of differing pay scales based on gender and marital status, the implementation of equal pay, and the removal of the marriage bar. Conroy opposed Ireland's entry into the EEC, serving as chair of Irish Women Against the Common Market, fearing that it would mark increased food prices and result in more poverty. She was also the chair and public relations officer of the National Association of Widows in Ireland, a group she co-founded, and lobbied throughout the 1970s for the rights of widows to be made the same as widowers.