{"id":268799,"date":"2026-01-05T18:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/268799\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:00:07","slug":"taoiseach-leads-tributes-to-late-senator-mary-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/268799\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach leads tributes to late senator Mary White"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former senator and Fianna F\u00e1il Vice President Mary White has died.<\/p>\n

Ms White was first elected to Seanad \u00c9ireann in 2002 and retained her seat until 2016, when she retired from politics after unsuccessfully running for a D\u00e1il seat in Dublin Rathdown in that year’s General Election.<\/p>\n

She also served as Fianna F\u00e1il’s spokesperson on Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation in the Seanad.<\/p>\n

Ms White went into politics off the back of a successful business career, having established Lir Chocolates in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMary White was first elected to Seanad \u00c9ireann in 2002<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has led tributes to Ms White.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said in a statement that Ms White “had an infectious energy and true commitment to public service.”<\/p>\n

“Mary had an infectious energy and a true commitment to public service. She had a can-do attitude and believed politics had to be about delivering for people.<\/p>\n

“She was a force of nature, the parliamentary party and politics were richer for her presence. Mary was very kind and caring and generous with her time.<\/p>\n

“She cared deeply about her country and was dedicated throughout her public life to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. In this, she drew on her business and political relationships, north and south of the border.<\/p>\n

\"Micheal
\nMary White alongside Miche\u00e1l Martin at the Fianna F\u00e1il think-in in 2015<\/p>\n

“She also cared deeply about Fianna F\u00e1il and contributed regularly to parliamentary party and Ard-Chomhairle meetings and in her retirement, to the Dublin Rathdown constituency.<\/p>\n

“On my own behalf and on behalf of the Fianna F\u00e1il organisation, I offer my deepest sympathy to (her husband) P\u00e1draic, (her daughter) Cliona and to their wider family.”<\/p>\n

The funeral mass for Ms White will be held in the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, Balally, Co Dublin on Thursday at 10am, followed by a cremation service at the Victorian Chapel, Mount Jerome, Harold’s Cross Road.<\/p>\n

Mary White is survived by her husband P\u00e1draic and daughter Cliona.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting: Miche\u00e1l Lehane<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former senator and Fianna F\u00e1il Vice President Mary White has died. Ms White was first elected to Seanad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-268799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115843801083632250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}