Born: 17 March 1933, Ireland
Died: 19 December 1997
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Patricia Broughal
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Patrick Long. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Lawlor, Patricia (‘Patsy’) (1933–97), politician and ICA president, was born Patricia Broughal, in March 1933 in Kill, Co. Kildare, daughter of a local businessman and his wife. Educated locally and at St Mary’s secondary school in Naas, she trained as a nurse. She was deeply involved in the social and economic life of Co. Kildare, where she lived and worked for most of her life, once describing herself as ‘born, bred, and buttered’ in Kill. She married Tony Lawlor, farmer and member of a prominent catering family in nearby Naas, and was a founder member of the Kill guild of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) in 1961. Although initially attracted to it as a social and creative outlet for married women in a society that limited female opportunity, she realised the ICA had unseen possibilities as a platform for advancement in women’s issues and other causes in rural Ireland, not least the pay demands of organised farmers in the mid 1960s. Accordingly, she later served (1973–6) as the ICA representative on the rural development committee of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and was a member of the Kildare county committee of agriculture. Patricia Lawlor’s agreeable personality and outspokenness on national issues struck an essential balance between the ICA’s conservative home-making image and its more determined edge. She and her husband lived at Johnstown House, Naas, where they had a family of three sons – Anthony, Kevin, and Philip – and one daughter, Miriam. Living near Dublin, which had its own suburban ICA guilds, and sitting as a Fine Gael member of Kildare county council from 1974, ‘Patsy’ Lawlor became a household name. She was the first female chairman of both the county council and of Kildare VEC (1979). A member of the General Council of County Councils from 1979, she was its chairperson 1981–2.
Her ICA career showed equally consistent progress: in 1970–71 she was guild president of Kill ICA, An Grianán teachta of Kildare Federation 1971–3, and president of Kildare Federation 1973–6. When elected national president of the ICA for the three-year term 1976–9, she was already serving on the local health board, as a member of the Arts Council (1975–8), and as chairman of Kildare county library committee (1974–80). In her inaugural presidential speech she was determined that the ICA, like the Council for the Status of Women (which it had helped to initiate), play a leading role in health, housing, educational, and environmental issues, a vocal lobby at regional and national level, ‘whispering together’ to create a loud noise. Living up to her word and reputation, she was a highly visible presence at social, trade, and diplomatic events, strongly supporting Irish agricultural produce and producers, notably the pork and bacon industry. She reiterated the progressive theme in subsequent addresses to the Association, stressing self-improvement through education and co-management of home life. In a presidential speech of April 1977 she called for improvement in the quality of Irish goods and services at a time of general decline in standards, and specifically urged cooperation between the ICA and the tourism industry. As a member of the Irish Council of the European Movement (1977–9) she understood the urgency of competitive standards within the European Union. A tall, fashionable, and articulate farmer’s wife, Lawlor enjoyed the disarming effect she had on those who might have expected a stereotypically agricultural matron in boots and bib.
Her later political career included some disappointments. She withdrew from contesting a Leinster seat in the European parliamentary elections of 1979, as a Fine Gael party ruling prevented a European candidate from also contesting a local election. She fell short of winning a seat for Kildare by only fifty votes in the general election of June 1981 but was elected instead to the senate as ICA nominee on the cultural and educational panel. Her seat was forfeit the following year owing to the fall of the short-lived Fine Gael/Labour coalition government. In 1985 Lawlor unsuccessfully sought the Fine Gael nomination for reelection to Kildare county council but was returned as an independent to Naas UDC, retaining her friendship with former Fine Gael party colleagues. In the same year she also sought a place on the board of the Bank of Ireland but was disappointed. In 1986 she reopened her family’s pub, the Old House in Kill, and managed it with her son Kevin. Her dynamism and national renown made Patricia Lawlor a living institution in Co. Kildare until her untimely death from cancer at St Vincent’s Private Nursing Home, Dublin, 19 December 1997. She was buried in St Corban’s cemetery, Naas.