Kit Ahern

Kit Ahern
Ahern in 1971
Teachta Dála
In office June 1977 – June 1981
Constituency	Kerry North
Senator
In office 5 November 1969 – 25 May 1977
Constituency	Cultural and Educational Panel
In office 23 October 1964 – 5 November 1969
Constituency	Nominated by the Taoiseach
Personal details
Born	Catherine Ita Liston (1915-01-13)13 January 1915 Athea, County Limerick, Ireland
Died	27 December 2007(2007-12-27) (aged 92) Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland
Political party	Fianna Fáil
Other political affiliations	Progressive Democrats
Spouse	Dan Ahern ​ ​ (m. 1941; died 1974)​
Children	3
Relatives	Eoin Liston (nephew) Ned O'Sullivan (cousin)
Alma mater	College of Art

Catherine Ita Ahern (née Liston; 13 January 1915 – 27 December 2007) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry North constituency from 1977 to 1981 and a Senator from 1964 to 1977.^[1] Ahern was the first woman to hold several political offices, such as first woman to chair Kerry County Council. At the 1977 general election she was one of only three women elected to the 21st Dáil.^[2]

A member of Fianna Fáil, during the 1970s and 1980s Ahern exemplified the convergence of Irish nationalism and social conservatism that was growing in the party at the time, supporting the functional use of the Irish language while opposing contraception, divorce, annulment and women with children working outside the home. In the 1979 Fianna Fáil leadership election, she supported the failed attempt by George Colley and thereafter fell afoul of his successful rival Charles Haughey, who prevented her from returning to the Seanad by favouring others. Starved of political support within Haughey's Fianna Fáil, she retired from national politics by the mid-1980s. Her Parthian shot was to defect to the newly created Progressive Democrats in 1985, a splinter party from Fianna Fáil filled with many of Haughey's opponents.^[2]