In life, sometimes the small moments become the momentous ones – just like when a young Mary O’Shea walked into a Fianna Fáil meeting on a Saturday evening in her first year of college at UCC. It was there she met her future husband, Micheál Martin. Little did either of them know that in time, he would become the country’s Taoiseach, with Mary by his side through the whole political journey.
By all accounts, Mary was a feisty first year. “I arrived in with two friends, and we were very opinionated,” she says, laughing. “Myself and Micheál were friends for a while before we got together. Micheál does joke that he stayed in college to do his Master’s because he met me,” Mary recalls, with a smile.
There have been snippets of their story revealed over the years, mainly by Micheál. However, in a rare interview, Mary O’Shea, better known by her married name Mary Martin, will give the audience at our Women & Agriculture conference next week a snapshot into life in the spotlight – through the lens of a lady who tends to shy away from the limelight. So why our conference to tell her story?
“I grew up in Midleton, my parents had a drapery shop and it was a town that depended on all the local farmers; everything revolved around agriculture,” she explains.
Mary also spent much of her childhood in Courtmacsherry, with her grandparents. “Nan came from a farm in Abbeymahon, just outside Timoleague, and my mother’s cousin still has that family farm, while another aunt has a farm out by Barryroe,” says Mary, explaining her appreciation of women in farming and her connection to the land. “Also, my friend goes to the Women & Agriculture conference every year and told me it’s great fun,” she says.
Mary’s grandparents in Courtmacsherry were both teachers, and so the importance of education was instilled in her from a young age, leading her to study history and geography in UCC. However, her interest in politics and specifically, Fianna Fáil, was very much her own path.
When asked if she came from a political family, she says: “Oh God, no. Ma’s family were west Cork and so they would have been on the republican side. But myself, I just became fascinated by politics. I remember watching the ’77 election – I was so interested in it, following the count and the results. Jack Lynch was the Taoiseach at the time… and everyone loved him.
“Then when I went to college in the 80s – and the three elections were on together – people would be calling into the shop saying to my mother: “Do you know your daughter [is up in UCC], on stage campaigning for Fianna Fáil?...
“But myself, Micheál, my sister Joan, my friends, we were just those kind of activist students, big into the Students’ Union; we all held positions at some point.”
Graduating to a political stage
It is well known in political circles that Mary Martin has a natural talent for politics and is an astute sounding board – she has even been referred to as ‘the unofficial matriarch of modern Fianna Fáil’. This stems from her own time in politics.
“After finishing my Higher Diploma in Education, I got a full-time job in Fianna Fáil HQ as youth officer. It was an exciting time and I was involved in the national election campaigns in ‘87 and ‘89. I was nine years living in Dublin, and I remember getting the 5am train up from Cork to Dublin on a Monday morning. There was no comfort in it; it was like a postal train, but I was young and enthusiastic, and it didn’t bother me really. And look, politics was different back then. There was real camaraderie in the Dáil; it was a lovely environment – we had great fun.”
After the couple got married, Mary continued working in Dublin but when children arrived, she returned to Cork, where she completed a Masters in Public Administration and lectured in the Department of Government in UCC. She also got elected to the Fianna Fáil National Executive but stepped back in 1996, after the birth of their second child, Aoibhe.
“I’ve continued to stay involved in Micheál’s local campaigns but I never did anything on a national level after that. Obviously, I see TDs that do it now [continue working full-time with children] but I have no regrets.”
Mary Martin chats with Irish Country Living editor, Ciara Leahy in The Kingsley Hotel in Cork ahead of the Women & Agriculture conference in Sligo on Thursday 23 October 2025. \ Donal O’ Leary
She looks at politics through the prism of someone outside the Dáil, specifically in relation to one of the biggest challenges facing Government – housing.
“We have three adult children. Our son has recently bought a house, and it needs some work, but I really see the journey he went on – bidding, being under-bidders,” she says, adding it was “challenging”.
“And look, buying a house has never been easy. I remember when Micheál and I went to buy our house, we had 18% interest rates to contend with. But there is not a shadow of a doubt, that this is the big bread and butter issue for the whole country now because there isn’t an age profile it doesn’t impact. I’m looking at it as the wife of the Taoiseach, but I’m also feeling it as a mother,” she says.
Micheál’s career
Politics has changed immensely since Micheál’s career began, and Mary has seen a real evolution over the past 30 years – especially with social media.
“Whether its the media, or social media, there is a spotlight put on everything...there is a terrible toxic thing running through on the political stuff. Women and women candidates especially get an onslaught.”
It’s also been a tough week or so for Michaél Martin and Fianna Fáil, following Jim Gavin’s decision to step back from the presidential campaign – and our interview took place just before he exited the race. But reflecting on politics in general, and Michaél’s career over the years, Mary says, “There’s no point in saying you’re not oblivious to whatever slings and arrows there are, what the headlines are on the papers.
“But you do have to look at it [politics] as a bit of a world in a bubble. Micheál would often say to us, not to look at social media.” And in terms of getting a feel for what people really think, Mary says, “I’d get far more from chatting at the tills below in SuperValu. That’s when you know what people are really saying... and thinking.”
“On the whole though, we have been lucky, [politics] hasn’t had any awful impact on our family. People in Cork are very supportive, we do joke that you wouldn’t want to get notions about yourself but once people know you’re doing your best... I kind of take all of that. And would I do it all over again? I probably would.”
Outside of politics, Mary and Micheál have had their own personal challenges, having lost two children. Their son Ruairí died from cot death at five weeks old and their daughter Léana passed away when she was seven, from a heart condition.
Micheál has spoken publicly about their family loss describing it as, "terrible, terrible trauma". Mary is more private but she does say, they have an amazing support network that helped them through.
“Our life isn’t completely bound up by Michaél’s public life, we also have this other little life, with a lovely support structure – people who are walking friends, and coffee friends, who wanted to mind me,” she says, gratefully.
Speaking about Courtmacsherry, which is their happy place, she says, “Our friends there, very few of them are political… they put a little bubble around us.”
Mary says in her interview at the Women & Agriculture conference, she will give attendees an insight into some of her most memorable days as wife of the Taoiseach, such as attending once-in-a-lifetime international events.
She’ll speak of some extraordinary days in what she describes as her ‘ordinary life’.
In life, sometimes the small moments become the momentous ones – just like when a young Mary O’Shea walked into a Fianna Fáil meeting on a Saturday evening in her first year of college at UCC. It was there she met her future husband, Micheál Martin. Little did either of them know that in time, he would become the country’s Taoiseach, with Mary by his side through the whole political journey.
By all accounts, Mary was a feisty first year. “I arrived in with two friends, and we were very opinionated,” she says, laughing. “Myself and Micheál were friends for a while before we got together. Micheál does joke that he stayed in college to do his Master’s because he met me,” Mary recalls, with a smile.
There have been snippets of their story revealed over the years, mainly by Micheál. However, in a rare interview, Mary O’Shea, better known by her married name Mary Martin, will give the audience at our Women & Agriculture conference next week a snapshot into life in the spotlight – through the lens of a lady who tends to shy away from the limelight. So why our conference to tell her story?
“I grew up in Midleton, my parents had a drapery shop and it was a town that depended on all the local farmers; everything revolved around agriculture,” she explains.
Mary also spent much of her childhood in Courtmacsherry, with her grandparents. “Nan came from a farm in Abbeymahon, just outside Timoleague, and my mother’s cousin still has that family farm, while another aunt has a farm out by Barryroe,” says Mary, explaining her appreciation of women in farming and her connection to the land. “Also, my friend goes to the Women & Agriculture conference every year and told me it’s great fun,” she says.
Mary’s grandparents in Courtmacsherry were both teachers, and so the importance of education was instilled in her from a young age, leading her to study history and geography in UCC. However, her interest in politics and specifically, Fianna Fáil, was very much her own path.
When asked if she came from a political family, she says: “Oh God, no. Ma’s family were west Cork and so they would have been on the republican side. But myself, I just became fascinated by politics. I remember watching the ’77 election – I was so interested in it, following the count and the results. Jack Lynch was the Taoiseach at the time… and everyone loved him.
“Then when I went to college in the 80s – and the three elections were on together – people would be calling into the shop saying to my mother: “Do you know your daughter [is up in UCC], on stage campaigning for Fianna Fáil?...
“But myself, Micheál, my sister Joan, my friends, we were just those kind of activist students, big into the Students’ Union; we all held positions at some point.”
Graduating to a political stage
It is well known in political circles that Mary Martin has a natural talent for politics and is an astute sounding board – she has even been referred to as ‘the unofficial matriarch of modern Fianna Fáil’. This stems from her own time in politics.
“After finishing my Higher Diploma in Education, I got a full-time job in Fianna Fáil HQ as youth officer. It was an exciting time and I was involved in the national election campaigns in ‘87 and ‘89. I was nine years living in Dublin, and I remember getting the 5am train up from Cork to Dublin on a Monday morning. There was no comfort in it; it was like a postal train, but I was young and enthusiastic, and it didn’t bother me really. And look, politics was different back then. There was real camaraderie in the Dáil; it was a lovely environment – we had great fun.”
After the couple got married, Mary continued working in Dublin but when children arrived, she returned to Cork, where she completed a Masters in Public Administration and lectured in the Department of Government in UCC. She also got elected to the Fianna Fáil National Executive but stepped back in 1996, after the birth of their second child, Aoibhe.
“I’ve continued to stay involved in Micheál’s local campaigns but I never did anything on a national level after that. Obviously, I see TDs that do it now [continue working full-time with children] but I have no regrets.”
Mary Martin chats with Irish Country Living editor, Ciara Leahy in The Kingsley Hotel in Cork ahead of the Women & Agriculture conference in Sligo on Thursday 23 October 2025. \ Donal O’ Leary
She looks at politics through the prism of someone outside the Dáil, specifically in relation to one of the biggest challenges facing Government – housing.
“We have three adult children. Our son has recently bought a house, and it needs some work, but I really see the journey he went on – bidding, being under-bidders,” she says, adding it was “challenging”.
“And look, buying a house has never been easy. I remember when Micheál and I went to buy our house, we had 18% interest rates to contend with. But there is not a shadow of a doubt, that this is the big bread and butter issue for the whole country now because there isn’t an age profile it doesn’t impact. I’m looking at it as the wife of the Taoiseach, but I’m also feeling it as a mother,” she says.
Micheál’s career
Politics has changed immensely since Micheál’s career began, and Mary has seen a real evolution over the past 30 years – especially with social media.
“Whether its the media, or social media, there is a spotlight put on everything...there is a terrible toxic thing running through on the political stuff. Women and women candidates especially get an onslaught.”
It’s also been a tough week or so for Michaél Martin and Fianna Fáil, following Jim Gavin’s decision to step back from the presidential campaign – and our interview took place just before he exited the race. But reflecting on politics in general, and Michaél’s career over the years, Mary says, “There’s no point in saying you’re not oblivious to whatever slings and arrows there are, what the headlines are on the papers.
“But you do have to look at it [politics] as a bit of a world in a bubble. Micheál would often say to us, not to look at social media.” And in terms of getting a feel for what people really think, Mary says, “I’d get far more from chatting at the tills below in SuperValu. That’s when you know what people are really saying... and thinking.”
“On the whole though, we have been lucky, [politics] hasn’t had any awful impact on our family. People in Cork are very supportive, we do joke that you wouldn’t want to get notions about yourself but once people know you’re doing your best... I kind of take all of that. And would I do it all over again? I probably would.”
Outside of politics, Mary and Micheál have had their own personal challenges, having lost two children. Their son Ruairí died from cot death at five weeks old and their daughter Léana passed away when she was seven, from a heart condition.
Micheál has spoken publicly about their family loss describing it as, "terrible, terrible trauma". Mary is more private but she does say, they have an amazing support network that helped them through.
“Our life isn’t completely bound up by Michaél’s public life, we also have this other little life, with a lovely support structure – people who are walking friends, and coffee friends, who wanted to mind me,” she says, gratefully.
Speaking about Courtmacsherry, which is their happy place, she says, “Our friends there, very few of them are political… they put a little bubble around us.”
Mary says in her interview at the Women & Agriculture conference, she will give attendees an insight into some of her most memorable days as wife of the Taoiseach, such as attending once-in-a-lifetime international events.
She’ll speak of some extraordinary days in what she describes as her ‘ordinary life’.
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