Inside Taoiseach Micheal Martin’s family life with wife and kids in Cork
MICHEAL Martin took office as Ireland's Taoiseach in June of 2020 - but has worked in Irish politics since 1985.
The Fianna Fail party leader and dad hails from Co Cork and has worked as a teacher, a city council member, Lord Mayor of Cork and as a TD in Dail Eireann.
Martin has served as Taoiseach for the majority of the Covid-19 pandemic and is set to hand over his position to Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar in late 2022.
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Micheal was born on August 1, 1960 to parents Paddy Moran and Eileen Lana Corbett, and he has a twin brother named Padraig.
He is the third child in a family of five, with two brothers and two sisters and was raised in the Turners Cross area of Co Cork.
Martin went to school at Colaiste Chriost Ri and went on to study Arts at University College Cork - where he joined Ogra Fianna Fail.
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He completed a Masters in Political History before doing a H. Dip and working as a history teacher in a fee-paying secondary school in Cork called Presentation Brothers College.
After just one year of teaching, Martin quit to become a full-time politician after being elected to Cork Corporation as a Fianna Fail candidate in 1985.
Martin married his college sweetheart Mary O'Shea in 1990. The pair had a New Year's Eve engagement and were married the following summer.
They have had five children together; Micheal Aodh, Aoibhe, Cillian, Léana and Ruairí.
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FAMILY'S TRAGIC LOSSES
The pair welcomed their first son, Micheal Aodh four years after they married and daughter Aoibhe two years later.
Their second son Ruairi was born in 1999 but died just five weeks later from a cot death.
The couple went on to have two more children, Cillian and Léana. But tragedy struck again, when Léana died unexpectedly at the age of seven.
Leana had suddenly developed a cardiac condition just weeks before her death, which came as a terrible shock to the family.
Martin, who was Foreign Affairs Minister at the time, told the Irish Times describing himself as a father-of-five "can be awkward for people".
He added: "You will always say that you have the kids that you lost. You don't want to make it awkward for other people because they may not know, but you don't want to say someone wasn't part of our lives and our family."
WORKING AWAY DURING COVID
In 2020, Martin told how life had changed for him during the Covid-19 pandemic with his family based in Co Cork and him based in Dublin for work.
The Taoiseach went months without seeing his family due to Covid lockdowns.
In May 2020, he told the Late Late Show: "I haven't seen the family in weeks now - about six or seven weeks I'd say.
"We're on the phone. We're doing the Zoom. I'm on the phone more often. The lockdown started - West Cork, I was there. I came to Dublin and have stayed since and that's it."
And in January 2021, as another month of lockdown loomed, the Taoiseach told the Irish Sun how he and his wife Mary found the ban on social visits to other households the toughest of the restrictions as he missed seeing family and friends.
And he said that their children Micheal Aodh, Aoibhe, and Cillian, who are all aged in their 20s, have also suffered in the impact of Covid on college and work experiences.
POLITICAL FAMILY TALKS
Martin said his three children constantly pull him up on decisions he makes with the Government on restrictions and comments he says about the pandemic.
He told the Irish Sun: “Non-stop. They all do. They’ll say ‘You shouldn’t have said this’, or ‘You should have did this’ or ‘You shouldn’t have decided that’ or ‘You should have gone that way’ and so on.
“But also, they’re a fountain of information. They are very big into the public health thing and what’s working and what other countries are doing and so they’ll feed on an article to you about Covid and the latest research and so on like that.
“All three of them are alert to what’s going on around them in that way in terms of particularly Covid if there is an article written."
ELECTED TAOISEACH
Martin was elected the new leader of the country in an historic vote in June 2020 that formed the 33rd Dail.
In his first speech as leader of the country, Micheal Martin praised his wife Mary and his children who were unable to see him elected Taoiseach due to Covid restrictions.
His niece Kate Martin, who is a nurse in Dublin’s Mater Hospital, was the only member of his family to watch on in the Convention Centre as he was elected Taoiseach.
He said: “My wife Mary has been a pillar of support and a partner for me since our days in college.
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“Our children have tolerated my many absences over the years. As they have grown, studied and experienced the world they have not just supported me, they have given Mary and I the benefit of their views of the Ireland which they have grown up with.
“I was blessed to be born into the home which my late parents created for me and my brothers and sisters in the heart of the close-knit, working-class community which I have the enormous privilege of representing in Dáil Éireann."
