Catherine Ita Ahern (; 13 January 1915 – 27 December 2007) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry North constituency from 1977 to 1981 and a Senator from 1964 to 1977. Ahern was the first woman to hold several political offices, such as first woman to chair Kerry County Council. At the 1977 general election she was one of only three women elected to the 21st Dáil.
Ahern's first political activity was in about 1934 when she and another classmate walked out of the classroom at her school to protest against other classmates wearing blue shirts in support of the Army Comrades Association.
Political career
Ahern's first major political role came in 1964, when she was nominated to Seanad Éireann by the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha.
Ahern contested the Dáil elections of 1965, 1969 and 1973, but was unsuccessful on all three occasions. However, she retained her Seanad seat, initially as a Taoiseach's nominee, and in 1969 and 1973 she was elected as a Senator for the Cultural and Educational Panel. After her re-election in 1973, she was nominated by Fianna Fáil Senator Brian Lenihan for the post of Leas-Chathaoirleach of the 13th Seanad. The post had traditionally been held by a member of an opposition party, but the incoming National Coalition government of Fine Gael and the Labour Party decided that it wanted a Labour Party deputy to a Fine Gael Cathaoirleach James Dooge. Labour's Evelyn Owens was elected as Leas-Chathaoirleach, but Ahern won the support not just of her Fianna Fáil colleagues but also of Mary Robinson then an independent senator.
Ahern became a member of Kerry County Council in 1967, and from 1977 to 1978 she was the council's first woman Cathaoirleach (chairperson).
Dáil success came for Ahern following Fianna Fáil's landslide victory at the 1977 general election, when she was elected as a TD for Kerry North. It was also the first time that two Fianna Fáil TDs had been elected in the Kerry North constituency, the other deputy being Tom McEllistrim. Ahern only served one term as in Dáil Éireann, as she lost her seat at the 1981 general election. The loss of her seat as a TD crippled Ahern's political career; having supported the failed bid of George Colley in the 1979 Fianna Fáil leadership election, Ahern did not enjoy the support of his successful rival Charles Haughey. Haughey did not return Ahern to the Seanad, instead choosing a member of his own faction, Denis Foley, over her. When Haughey didn't nominate her for the Seanad after the February 1982 Irish general election, it was clear his position had been cemented and that Ahern was now frozen out within Fianna Fáil. Ahern felt embittered, believing that over the course of her 13 years in the Seanad she had built up considerable new support for Fianna Fáil in Kerry, only for her to be simply discarded by Haughey due to internal politics. Not seeing a future for her political career, Ahern retired from national politics. Nonetheless, in 1985 Ahern joined the Progressive Democrats, a splinter party from Fianna Fáil led by an Haughey archrival Desmond O'Malley.
Speaking in 2004, Ahern stated retroactively that “Jack Lynch and Des O’Malley were my two heroes in politics. I was in Dublin the night they threw Dessie out. Men of outstanding integrity. Only for Jack Lynch keeping his cool on the Northern issue in 1968, we would have had a civil war, no doubt about that.”
Personal life
She died in Tralee in December 2007, In 1941, she married Dan Ahern, a national school teacher, who died in 1974. They had three children. Her cousin, Fianna Fáil Senator Ned O'Sullivan described Ahern as a highly principled woman, and said that "Kit Ahern had more integrity in her little finger than most of us have in our entire bodies".
Ahern was a lifelong promoter of the Irish language and the aunt of Kerry Gaelic footballer Eoin Liston. She was also President of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society.