Maeve Hillery
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Dr. Mary Beatrice (Maeve) Finnegan is the widow of the late President of Ireland Dr. Patrick Hillery.
Maeve Finnegan was educated at University College Dublin where she studied medicine. It was here that she met her future husband, Patrick Hillery, who was also studying medicine. The couple married on 27 October 1955. Together they had a son, John, and a daughter, Vivienne, who died after a long illness in 1985, shortly before her eighteenth birthday. Patrick Hillery later served in a number of political roles, including Foreign Minister and European Commissioner. After the completion of is term as EC Commissioner in 1976 he contemplated leaving politics and returning to medicine, perhaps moving with his wife to Africa. Instead, Hillery was asked to become the sixth President of Ireland. He served in that capacity until 1990. By that stage Maeve Hillery, who was ever-present by his side during his presidency, had become just as well-known as her husband.
Patrick Hillery died on April 12, 2008. He was accorded a full state funeral.[1]
