Background and Family Life
Born Mary Patricia Leneghan (Irish: Máire Pádraigín Ní Lionnacháin) in Ardoyne, north Belfast, McAleese was the eldest of nine children. She is a Roman Catholic. Her family was forced to leave the area by loyalists when The Troubles broke out. Educated at St Dominic's High School, she also spent some time when younger with the Poor Clares, Queen's University Belfast (from which she graduated in 1973), and Trinity College, Dublin. She was called to the Northern Irish Bar in 1974, and remains a member of the Irish Bar. She opposes abortion and divorce.
In 1976, she married Martin McAleese, an accountant and dentist by profession. He has assisted his wife with some of her initiatives as president. They have three children: Emma, born 1982, graduated as an engineer from University College Dublin and is a dentistry student at Trinity College, Dublin; twins: Justin, an accountant with a master's degree from University College Dublin, and SaraMai, who obtained a master's degree in biochemistry at the University of Oxford were born in 1985.
Read more about this topic: Mary McAleese
Famous quotes containing the words family life, background and, background, family and/or life:
“Freud is all nonsense; the secret of neurosis is to be found in the family battle of wills to see who can refuse longest to help with the dishes. The sink is the great symbol of the bloodiness of family life.”
—Julian Mitchell (20th century)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedys conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didnt approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldnt have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (19081973)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didnt know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“If we can find a principle to guide us in the handling of the child between nine and eighteen months, we can see that we need to allow enough opportunity for handling and investigation of objects to further intellectual development and just enough restriction required for family harmony and for the safety of the child.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“We swim, day by day, on a river of delusions, and are effectually amused with houses and towns in the air, of which the men about us are dupes. But life is a sincerity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)