Geraldine Kennedy (born 1 September 1951) is an Irish journalist and politician who served as the first female editor of The Irish Times newspaper. She previously served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dún Laoghaire constituency from 1987 to 1989.
In 1982, Kennedy's telephone, along with those of two other journalists, was tapped by the Minister for Justice, Seán Doherty. The revelation in 1992 that Charles Haughey had ordered the phone taps led to Haughey's resignation as Taoiseach.
Early career
Kennedy studied at Dublin Institute of Technology and began her journalistic career with a regional newspaper, the Munster Express. She moved to the Cork Examiner after less than a year, but spent only a few years there before joining The Irish Times.
On the foundation of the Sunday Tribune in 1980, Kennedy joined as the paper's political correspondent. The paper's publisher, John Mulcahy, had become familiar with Kennedy when she had contributed to his journal Hibernia. When the Tribune briefly ceased production, Kennedy moved to the Sunday Press.
She stood again in the 1989 general election and won 9% of the first-preference vote but failed to retain her seat.
Return to journalism
Following her election defeat, Kennedy returned to The Irish Times, then edited by Conor Brady, whom she had worked with at the Tribune when he was the editor. She avoided party-political journalism for several years, but she returned to covering politics in the early 1990s, and became The Irish Times political editor in 1999. She became the newspaper's first female editor upon the departure of Conor Brady in late 2002.
Kennedy was paid more than the editor of Britain's top non-tabloid newspaper The Daily Telegraph, which has a circulation of about nine times that of The Irish Times. Later columnist Fintan O'Toole told the Sunday Independent: "We as a paper are not shy of preaching about corporate pay and fat cats but with this there is a sense of excess. Some of the sums mentioned are disturbing. This is not an attack on Ms Kennedy, it is an attack on the executive level of pay. There is double-standard of seeking more job cuts while paying these vast salaries." In 2009, however, the Supreme Court overturned this ruling, holding that the High Court had not struck the correct balance between the journalists’ right to protect their source and the tribunal's right to confidentiality.
Kennedy announced on 12 March 2011 her intention to retire from The Irish Times by September, after a nine-year term as editor. She actually retired in June, and was succeeded by news editor, Kevin O'Sullivan, who succeeded her as editor on 23 June 2011.
In August 2012, she was appointed adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Limerick.
She has been awarded five honorary doctorates from Irish universities.