We were deeply saddened to hear that our former President of the Irish Haemochromatosis Association, Mary O’Rourke passed away this autumn. Sincere condolences to her family, her wide circle of friends and to all who knew Mary as a well-known politician, who devoted decades of her life to Irish politics.
Mary O’Rourke officially launched the Irish Haemochromatosis Association at a meeting in the Mater Hospital on November 8th 2002 when she was Minister for Public Enterprise at that time. The Association was founded in 1999 by two Galway sisters, Gwenda Mc Innerney and the late Dr Catriona Little. Gwenda and Catriona, along with other founder members did trojan work to get the Association off the ground and in 2002 Mary O’Rourke graciously accepted the invitation to became President of the Association.
Margaret Mullett took over as Chairperson in 2002 from Noel Hynes and over the years Mary was an incredible help to Margaret and the IHA and left no stone unturned to raise awareness of HH and the importance of early diagnosis, She was familiar with the disorder as her late brother, Brian Lenihan had been diagnosed with haemochromatosis. Every year, she attended the AGM and organised an information stand during World Haemochromatosis Awareness Week, usually in Athlone. She was always happy to be interviewed about haemochromatosis. On more than one ocassion Mary ran the mini-marathon for the IHA in Dublin.
Mary, along with her nephew, Brian Lenihan (at the time, Junior Minister for Health) organised meetings to raise awareness and in July 2005, thanks to Mary and Dr. Maurice Manning, representatives of the Association met with the Tanaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney. Margaret Mullett and the board received incredible help from Minister Harney and a much-needed donation from the Health Department came at a time when the charity had no other official income. In 2006, when Mary was Leader of the Senate, she and Dr. Mannning, former Senator published a crucial report which highlighted to the Senate issues of concern to haemochromatosis patients at the time. From Margaret Mullett, Honorary President, IHA, ‘Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h’anam dílis’
