Page 11 - IFAFA ebook v4

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Bernadette Hamill

In the Beginning

One afternoon in September 1979, a small group sat around a table

in our apartment in mid-town Manhattan. There were seven of us:

Irene McMahon, Mary Burke, Adele Hutchinson, Sattie Sharkey,

Helen Gray, Anne Ansbro, and myself.

As spouses, we shared the diplomatic life – which is always

demanding, and very often lonely – but we were without a

recognized voice or involvement in decisions affecting us and our

families.

I saw the need for a support group to address both the personal and

practical aspects of our situation. I wanted to develop personal

contact, cooperation and information exchange in a more organised

way – and to seek improvements in living conditions relating to

accommodation, our children’s education and family life generally –

and out of that grew our own present-day Irish Foreign Affairs

Family Association.

At the conclusion of the 1979 UN General Assembly, Irene

courageously brought the fledgling spouses' association back to

Dublin – and here we are, a full 40 years later!

Congratulations to one and all involved down through the years.

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