*** Welcome to piglix ***

Jan O'Sullivan

Jan O'Sullivan
TD
Jan O'Sullivan cropped.jpg
Minister for Education and Skills
In office
11 July 2014 – 6 May 2016
Taoiseach Enda Kenny
Preceded by Ruairi Quinn
Succeeded by Richard Bruton
Minister of State for Housing and Planning
In office
20 December 2011 – 11 July 2014
Taoiseach Enda Kenny
Preceded by Willie Penrose
Succeeded by Paudie Coffey
Minister of State for Trade and Development
In office
10 March 2011 – 20 December 2011
Taoiseach Enda Kenny
Preceded by New office
Succeeded by Joe Costello
Teachta Dála
Assumed office
February 2011
Constituency Limerick City
Teachta Dála
In office
March 1998 – February 2011
Constituency Limerick East
Senator
In office
12 February 1993 – 20 July 1997
Constituency Administrative Panel
Personal details
Born Janice Gale
(1950-12-06) 6 December 1950 (age 66)
Clonlara, Clare, Ireland
Nationality Irish
Political party Labour Party
Other political
affiliations
Democratic Socialist Party (1982–91)
Spouse(s) Paul O'Sullivan
Children 2
Alma mater
Religion Church of Ireland

Janice O'Sullivan (née Gale; born 6 December 1950) is an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Education and Skills from 2014 to 2016, Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2011 to 2014 and Minister of State for Trade and Development in 2011. She has been a Teachta Dála (TD) since 1998, currently for the Limerick City constituency.

O'Sullivan was born in Clonlara, County Clare and educated at Villiers Secondary School, Limerick, where her father was a journalist. After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, she took a Higher Diploma in Education at University College Cork. After working as a teacher for a short period of time, she studied as a Montessori teacher while living in Canada. After returning to Ireland, in the late 1970s, O'Sullivan helped to run Limerick's Family planning clinic.

A member of the Church of Ireland, she married a Roman Catholic, Paul O'Sullivan, with whom she has one daughter and one son. She chose to spend time at home while having her children and once they were in school she ran a playgroup in the mornings, spent time with the children in the afternoon and did political work in the evenings.

O'Sullivan entered politics in 1982 by joining the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), a small party founded by Limerick TD Jim Kemmy, who had previously been a member of the Labour Party. There had been no political tradition in her family—her parents had supported different parties—and her choice of party was based on her support for Kemmy's anti-nationalist stance on Northern Ireland, and his advocacy of family planning services and a pro-choice approach to abortion.


...
Wikipedia

...