Decades before she became the line minister, Heather Humphreys' first experience of enterprise and innovation was smuggling butter, Milkybars and Maltesers over the Border as a child.
Her upbringing in Co Monaghan, and background as a practising Presbyterian, will likely play a major part in the story Humphreys and Fine Gael aim to tell as she seeks to succeed Michael D Higgins as president of Ireland.
Heather Maud Stewart, born in 1963, grew up in Drum – one of the only Protestant-majority settlements in the State. By her own account, she did not come from a political home. In 1912, her grandfather was one of 12,000 Monaghan men who signed the Ulster Covenant, in protest against the third Home Rule Bill. Humphreys would later say the then 19-year-old Robert James Stewart would not in his “wildest dreams” have thought his only granddaughter would go on to be the government minister responsible for commemorations.
As a child, Humphreys witnessed burned out checkpoints during the Troubles and says she can remember the community “shock wave” caused by the IRA murdering Fine Gael senator Billy Fox in 1974.
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Though there are mixed reviews of her media performances as a minister, she was a strong debater at St Aidan’s Comprehensive School in Cootehill and would later recall with relish the day her team beat Dublin’s Belvedere College in a regional final.
Humphreys came from an agricultural background and married farmer Eric Humphreys in 1996. They have two daughters, Eva and Tara. Her own family has been immersed in the Irish Farmers’ Association. Her first job was working as a waitress in Butlin’s.
After finishing school, she worked for Ulster Bank in Dublin before serving as manager of Cootehill Credit Union from 1999 to 2011. This job exposed her to the daily anxieties people faced and the experience that galvanised her interest in entering politics.
In 2003, Humphreys was co-opted on to Monaghan County Council when the abolishment of the dual mandate meant Fine Gael TD Seymour Crawford had to be replaced on the local authority. Humphreys would later recall that Crawford chose her over her brother, Bert Stewart, because Fine Gael needed more women in its ranks.
In 2011, Humphreys was one of four Fine Gael candidates selected in the five seat Cavan-Monaghan constituency. She later said she was able to run because her friend Crawford “passed the baton” by standing aside “when the wind was in the Fine Gael sails” following Fianna Fáil’s collapse after the EU-IMF bailout.
Fine Gael had only held one seat in the constituency since 2002 and a perception existed that the area was a Fianna Fáil “fortress”. However, Humphreys was one of three Fine Gael TDs elected, capitalising on its old rival’s decline.
After entering Dáil Éireann, Humphreys garnered a reputation as a “no nonsense” sort and impressed party leader Enda Kenny. In 2014, during her maiden Dáil term, she was plucked from the backbenches and made a cabinet minister in the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Her appointment led to some media criticism, particularly from The Irish Times, that the government was not taking the arts seriously enough. Humphreys worked hard to disprove her detractors, with her management of the 1916 commemorations seen as sober and balanced. She also faced criticism after the 2014 reshuffle as neither she, nor minister of State for the Gaeltacht Joe McHugh, spoke fluent Irish.
More controversy would follow. Humphreys was involved in the controversial appointment of John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in September 2014. It was perceived as a political stroke to qualify a former Fine Gael candidate for an upcoming seat on the Seanad’s cultural and educational panel.
Humphreys came under pressure and performed poorly when questioned by the media about the affair. But as a popular figure in her party, she was granted grace by colleagues who felt she had been thrown under the bus by Enda Kenny. Humphreys vowed after this episode to never again be so publicly unprepared.
She held the business and enterprise brief during the fallout from the Brexit referendum, but it is her work as minister for rural and community development that supporters see as her greatest strength as a presidential candidate.
The role brought her all over Ireland and saw her marked by then Independent opposition TD Michael Healy-Rae, a gene pool Fianna Fáiler, who has now backed her presidential bid. This is presented by Fine Gael members as evidence of her broad appeal.
Humphreys was responsible for social protection during the Covid-19 pandemic and briefly held the justice portfolio while Helen McEntee took maternity leave.
She largely avoided controversy while sitting at cabinet, though some questions remain about her handling of a whistleblower allegation while in the Department of Justice and her intervention in an alleged animal cruelty case that was subsequently dropped.
She says Gone With the Wind is one of her favourite films because it’s about a “strong woman”. She was known to sometimes throw parties for female staffers while serving as a minister and would regale colleagues with her rendition of Top of the World by The Carpenters.
A matriarchal figure in the party, there was genuine dismay when she announced her, now seemingly premature, retirement from politics in advance of last year’s general election.
In February, Humphreys told The Irish Times that she planned to not do anything for at least three months. “But you know what it is like, you can never say no to anything in politics.”
