Eileen Mary Hickey (1886 – 3 February 1960) was a

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. Hickey studied at

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, where she received a BSc, MD and DPH, before working as a

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at the Mater Hospital in

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. She became a member of the Board of Governors and was later President of the

Ulster Medical Society The Ulster Medical Society was formed in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, in 1862 through the amalgamation of two older societies, the Belfast Medical Society which was founded in 1806, and the Belfast Clinical and Pathological Society wh ...

.Biographies of Members of the Northern Ireland House of Commons
/ref> In 1929, she was appointed clinical examiner in

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at Queen's University, the first woman to hold the post. In 1945, she was appointed to the Advisory Committee for the Belfast Area under the Unemployment Act (Northern Ireland), 1934,Arthur Maltby, ''The Government of Northern Ireland, 1922–72'' while in 1949, she was appointed to the Irish

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. Hickey was nominated by

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graduates of Queen's University as their candidate in the Queen's University, Belfast by-election, 1948, but was easily defeated by Samuel Irwin. She was again nominated for the Queen's University of Belfast constituency at the

1949 Northern Ireland general election The 1949 Northern Ireland general election was held on 19 February 1949. The election became known as the Chapel-gate election because collections were held at churches in the Republic of Ireland to support the Nationalist Party campaign. T ...

and was elected this time. She served as an

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Member of Parliament. While there, she was viewed as a potential ally by the

Anti-Partition of Ireland League The Irish Anti-Partition League (APL) was a political organisation based in Northern Ireland which campaigned for a united Ireland from 1945 to 1958. The organisation aimed to unite Irish nationalists, filling the void left by nationalist group ...

MPs.Women in 20th-Century Ireland, 1922–1966 Search Results

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Hickey was re-elected in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

but stood down in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

. A committee of the

Parliament of Northern Ireland The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...

concluded that her Advisory Committee post constituted an

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under the crown, even though she never claimed or received any remuneration. This officially invalidated her elections.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hickey, Eileen 1886 births 1960 deaths Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1949–1953 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1953–1958 Independent members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Women members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for Queen's University of Belfast