BEHIND every great man there has to be a great woman – in the case of the newly appointed Minister for Defence that woman is Lily Killeen.

On Wednesday Lily was full of praise for her husband, Tony. Praise for sticking it out and waiting for years for a senior ministry. Look closely though and it’s plain to see that she is not entirely unworthy of praise herself. It was Lily whose support egged the now minister on over the years. Helped him stay the course to the top table.
“We are elated for him. We are particularly delighted that he has finally been properly recognised for his hard work. Being so close to him for many years, I know more than anyone the buzz he gets from politics, from the work he does. Serving his community at all the levels he has from county councillor right through to Minister of State level, and now senior ministry, makes him happy. Essentially he wants to serve his community,” Lily said.
While she acknowledged that it hasn’t always been easy for her when Tony has been tied up in different issues, she said that she is “hugely supportive” of what he does.
“The past year or so has been very hard due to his illness. It is great for him to get this reward after all that he has been through. Despite his illness, he met all of his political commitments. He did travel a lot and put in a lot of hard work at times he shouldn’t have, because he needed to rest and look after himself. There might have been times I was cross with him for not giving himself more space but that’s Tony – he works well under pressure,” she explained.
She said that Tony, even during his illness, was not one to wallow in his own situation.
“By not lying low it helped him to fight the illness too. He isn’t the kind of person who wants to be idle. He could deal with resting the weeks he had treatment but then he rallied again as quickly as he could. To be honest his political work really was a lifeline to him through his illness.”
Her husband’s senior ministry was a long time coming said Lily.
“We all know the Cabinet table is where decisions are made, so he wanted that voice. I do feel that his stance on the Shannon stopover in the early 90s probably cost him in terms of an earlier move from the backbenches. He was aware of that himself. But he just got the head down again after it all and did his work. There were a number of times of bitter disappointment when he had hoped he would get a senior ministry and times when he thought it would never come his way but I always urged him just to keep up the work because that was and is what he loves to do. He did feel there were times it wouldn’t happen but he kept working – he ploughed along doing best work he could. A number of times I felt he lost out on a senior ministry because of the nature of coalitions and the Taoiseach of the day having to compromise to accommodate coalition parties.
It’s hard to see your husband being disappointed again and again but this week’s news makes up for it all, I always told him there was tomorrow, and now that has come,” she said.
Lily pointed out that politics wasn’t on the agenda for Tony when we were first together.
“He was involved in local groups promoting local issues but I had no idea he’d get into politics to the extent that he did. But I wouldn’t want it any other way now. It makes him tick. He’s always had a strong urge to serve his community – now his community is far bigger. He has aspired to a senior ministry for many years and I’m delighted and somewhat relieved that finally his time has come. I have no doubt that he will be a very strong voice at the Cabinet table, and that he will progress issues for Clare and the wider Mid-West region.”
Tony and Lily have five sons – Cathal, 30, who lives in Cork but is working in Dublin in project management; Muiris, 28, who has an acquired brain injury and lives in sheltered accommodation in Ennis; Diarmuid, 25, currently living in London where he works in project management; Neil, 22, who works in the Marine Institute in Dublin and Fergus, 14, who is in second year in the CBS in Ennistymon.
Lily has been a stay at home mother since the boys were small and admitted that at times she could have done with more hands-on help from her husband.
“There were times when he was very busy that it was hard looking after the boys but essentially that was our way of life and we all got very used to it. The boys have all grown-up with politics and I think they probably loved the buzz of hearing about what was going on too. They certainly are all very informed as a result of what Tony works at,” she said.
She added that all of the boys are interested in politics to a certain level. “Neil has a keen interest in politics. They all have got debates with Tony about political issues, especially Neil, but we, and especially I, are not pushing him in that direction. It’s a hard life,” she said.
Lily and her sons have all been involved in election campaigns over the years.
“I can’t say I actually enjoyed it but it was our norm. Because Tony is so dedicated to his work, we all worked hard on his campaigns too, because we knew how important it was for him and for so many people that he would be re-elected.”
She travelled up to Dublin to be with Tony in Dublin for the announcement on Tuesday.
“He told me about an hour before the official announcement. We were very hopeful this time around but you never know until the actual announcement is confirmed. The defence portfolio had been mentioned throughout the media for a while, so we felt if he was to get a ministry this time, it would be defence. We are over the moon for Tony and so thrilled that this has come. This is his chance now to make the ultimate contribution and I believe he will shine,” Lily concluded.

A long road from county councillor

HIS Presidential seal of office is for the defence portfolio but for Clare and Fianna Fáil, Tony Killeen is now the “Minister for Shannon” in a political life cycle that has brought him back to where his rise to national prominence began.
Shannon Airport gave him lift off with a poll topping vote at the first Dáil attempt in 1992 and after an 18-year maturing period, Tony Killeen is going to be relied upon to have a compelling Shannon voice not only raised but heard at the Cabinet table.
The battle for Shannon of the 1990s pales in comparison to the sorry state of affairs at the airport that the new minister faces.
He was a raw rural councillor in his first term when he was thrust into national prominence. He had won early trust when his fellow councillors elected him Clare County Council chairman and, as dark clouds gathered over Shannon, that position provided a springboard straight into the lead role on the Shannon Status Committee.
Tony Killeen projected conviction and cool composure as founding chairman of the Shannon Status Committee and it was there that that the gifts that would be put to use in the Oireachtas in later years were severely tested. The committee was a conglomeration of diverse elements represented by a collection of individuals with strong views, and in some cases stronger voices, not all of which were singing from the same hymn sheet.
Teacher training in managing a group demanding individual attention as well as the years of involvement with community development, the IFA and the INTO served him well in bringing cohesion at surface level to the protracted campaign in defence of Shannon’s transatlantic gateway status.
Although he was pitted against powerful adversaries with heavily resourced war chests, he was a match for the high profile and seasoned campaigners of the Dublin campaign for direct US flights. In live Late Late Show debate and radio panel discussions, as well as returning fire against continuous media sniping, Tony Killeen was resolute and balanced and established a public profile as a man who talked sense. He was not confounded when he too had to contend with what was perceived as turncoat defection from long-time loyalty to Shannon by Aer Lingus and his own Fianna Fáil party.
Shannon had a hair’s-breath escape when the late Seamus Brennan as transport minister was all set to dismantle the “stopover” when the political landscape changed with the unseating of Charles Haughey.
The new Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, made a change at the Department of Transport and the new minister Maire Geoghegan Quinn changed the government tune. The reprieve was short lived, however.
Following the 1992 election that swept him into the Dáil, Tony Killeen as the “Shannon man” had to contend with a new transport minister, Brian Cowen, whose first instructions from his Taoiseach were to save Aer Lingus from financial ruin.
Although he promised the Dáil that the survival strategy to be drawn up would be “in the context of the Shannon stop”, the pledge was rendered meaningless when Minister Cowen conceded direct US flights into Dublin.
Even though he had established a good relationship with the minister, Killeen was the first to break ranks when the abolition of Shannon’s gateway status was announced and constituency colleague Síle de Valera quickly followed him.
Both resigned the Fianna Fáil whip and there were quite a few who suggested that the Tony Killeen had scuttled his political career and especially any later promotion prospects.
Divided loyalties frustrated what could have been a Mid-West revolt by TDs. Tony Killeen was convinced that Willie O’Dea in Limerick East could be won over if another big vote getter, the late Jim Kemmy could be persuaded to come out on Shannon’s side. But the Limerick socialist had been rewarded with the chairmanship of the Labour Party when he returned to the fold under Dick Spring and he was not prepared to put the Labour coalition with Fianna Fáil at risk.
Tony Killeen would be on the wrong end of a government decision again when the Burren interpretative centre at Mullaghmore on his Kilnaboy doorstep was abandoned. In that campaign, his loyalty to his cause was unwavering.
The cool, calming skills of Tony Killeen have been best employed behind the scenes in his steady ascent through Oireachtas committees and then on to Minister of State ranking and now elevation to full cabinet office.
For Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, he was the “minder” of independent TD, Jackie Healy-Rea throughout the entire run of an administration in which the South Kerry Deputy was an essential support. Tony Killeen was the channel through which the views of independent TDs were relayed back to the government and the term “feedback” was given new meaning when the Clare TD and Healy-Rea became what amounted to an everyday lunchtime fixture in the Dáil restaurant. The widespread and virtually unanimous regard that Tony Killeen enjoys from all sides in the Dáil was also firmly grounded when he served on Oireachtas bodies on ethics at what was a ticklish time for Fianna Fáil in particular and also his service on the committee dealing with expenses.