Liz McManus

1947 Born in Montreal, Canada. Lived in France, The Netherlands and Ireland. Education: Secondary school. The Holy Child Convent, Killiney. 1969 Graduated from University College Dublin. B. Architecture. Worked as an architect for Liam McCormick and Associates. Derry, Northern Ireland, for Simon Kelly and Partners, Galway and Group Design, Dublin. Founder of the Bray Womens Group and the Womens Refuge in Bray, co Wicklow. 1981 Won the Hennessy/Irish Press Award for New Irish Writing. 1984 Won Listowel and PEN writing awards. 1990 First novel Acts of Subversion shortlisted for the Aer Lingus/Irish Times First Novel award. Short fiction published in anthologies, including Virgins and Hyacinths (published by Attic Press) and In Sunshine and in Shadow, (published in USA by Delacorte Press) Taught Creative Writing in the Bray VEC Adult Education programme. Residencies at Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, co Monaghan. 1985 -1992 Newspaper columnist for The Sunday Tribune newspaper. 1992 Elected to Dail Eireann for Democratic Left in the Co Wicklow constituency. 1993 Chairperson of the Taskforce on the Needs of the Travelling Community. 1994-1997 Appointed Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal in the Rainbow Government. Chaired the EU Housing Ministers meetings during the Irish Presidency and addressed the UN Habitat conference in Istanbul. Set up the Housing Initiative, introduced legislation in Ireland to tackle drug abuse in Local Authority estates, introduce a Village Renewal Scheme. Member of the North/South Forum and Ministerial Drugs Taskforce. 1997 -2011 Spokesperson policy areas including health, agriculture, energy and communications, climate change. 2000-2011 Campaigned to address inequality in healthcare. Published Curing our Ills and Our Good Health, policy documents that set the template for an insurance-based health service. Published The Energy Revolution, and Climate Change Law. As a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committees published reports on Hospital Waiting Lists,Women refugees, Postcodes, and Climate Change legislation. 2002 Elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. 2011 Retired from Dail Eireann. 2012 Appointed Chairperson of the Monitoring Group of the implementation of UN Resolution 1325 (National Action Plan of Ireland). 2013 Graduated with a M.Phil in Creative Writing (with distinction) from Trinity College Dublin. Residency at the Heinrich Boll cottage, Achill, Co Mayo. Working on her second novel. Lives in 1 Martello Tce., Bray, Co. Wicklow, childhood home of James Joyce and setting for the Christmas Dinner scene in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.