FORMER DUBLIN Fine Gael TD Alice Glenn, who has died aged 90, was a colourful and outspoken opponent of her party’s liberalism in the 1980s.
She found herself in frequent conflict with the late Dr Garret FitzGerald, who as party leader advocated a liberal and pluralist Ireland.
She opposed the availability of contraception and the introduction of divorce, warning women who voted for the latter that it would be similar to “turkeys voting for Christmas”.
Ms Glenn was first elected to the Dáil for Dublin Central in 1981, but lost her seat in the February 1982 election.
She regained her seat in the election the following November and remained in the Dáil until 1987 when she lost as an Independent.
She ran a dress design business before becoming a full-time public representative. Ms Glenn’s political career began when she was elected to Dublin Corporation in 1974. She was the first woman to become a member of the Dublin Port and Docks Board.
Voicing her disillusionment with Dr FitzGerald’s policies in the 1980s, she said that before being elected to the Dáil she was not aware there was a party election manifesto for public consumption which later changed to a hidden agenda.
She claimed Dr FitzGerald had warned that anybody wishing to be “Gaelic and Catholic” would get no support from him.
“My dilemma was how to remain on the national scene as an outspoken promoter of traditional and family values while being a member of a party which I felt was led by persons opposed to them.”
Ms Glenn died in a Dublin nursing home on Friday after a long illness.
Her funeral will take place on Wednesday after 10.30am Mass at St Columba’s Church, Iona Road, Glasnevin, Dublin.