Husband and wife to be reunited in Dáil
The Dáil’s first husband and wife duo will be re-united this week after spending a month apart on the general election campaign trail.
New Fine Gael TD for Donegal North East, Senator Joe McHugh was canvassing voters hundreds of miles away from Olwyn Enright’s electoral base in Laois/Offaly.
Senator McHugh, 37, topped the poll to win the first party seat in his constituency in a decade while Ms Enright was eventually elected after the eighth count in Birr.
Both will join the rest of their 49 Fine Gael colleagues in Leinster House when the new Dáil meets on June 14.
Former teacher Joe said: “We haven’t seen each other for a month because we’ve had to literally devote ourselves full-time to the campaign for the past month to get every vote possible.
“But we’re looking forward to a reunion in a few days and a bit of a party.”
He added: “Being a TD can be a lonely place so we will be great company for each other in the Dáil.”
“We will be in the unique position of having each other as an ally and support.”
The couple first met when Joe was visiting the home of Olwyn’s father, former Fine Gael TD Tom Enright.
“I was having a meeting with her father in the front room of their home and she walked in, and that was it for me,”
Both met again at the Senate count in 2002 where their relationship blossomed and they married three years later in Olwyn’s home town of Birr.
Olwyn, 33, retained her father’s Dáil seat in 2002 and was quickly promoted to education spokeswoman for the Opposition.
Joe insisted they had never talked about the possibility of making history as the first married couple to be returned to the Dáil and the prospect was a big surprise.
“We have never sought to gain publicity out of our position, it’s never been an issue,” he said.
“We have been given great latitude by the media in that respect.”
He said it would make little difference in their already hectic lives but he might get to see his wife a little more because the Dáil sits one day more a week than the Senate.
“We are no different to any other young couple in the country. We’re working long hours, late into the night. There’s a whole new type of society out there,” he said.
The former senator wouldn’t be drawn on whether the young couple would be allowed to sit side-by-side in the Dáil.
