Maeve Hillery

Hillery died in Dublin, on 10 January 2015. She was buried in St Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton.

Hillery's husband served in a number of political roles, including foreign minister and European Commissioner. After the completion of his term as a European Commissioner in 1976, he contemplated leaving politics and returning to medicine. Instead, Hillery was asked to become the sixth President of Ireland. The woollen cloak she worn to her husband's inauguration as president is now held in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks. She used a number of Irish designers during her 13 years in Áras an Uachtaráin, highlighting Irish design and materials.

Maeve Hillery (née Finnegan; 14 August 1924 – 10 January 2015) was an Irish anaesthetist who was the wife of the 6th President of Ireland, Patrick Hillery.

Hillery was born Mary Beatrice Finnegan on 14 August 1924 in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Her father was a builder from Galway, and her mother was half-Irish. Hillery would holiday in Ireland as a child, and during World War II she attended a boarding school in Galway for a year. She entered University College, Galway and qualified as a doctor. She then attended University College Dublin, where she studied to become a anaesthetist. It was here that she met her future husband, Patrick Hillery, who was also studying medicine. She worked in Jervis Street Hospital, St James' Hospital, and in Sheffield. The couple married on 27 October 1955. The Hillerys practised medicine together in Milltown Malbay while her husband was a TD. Together they had a son, John, and an adopted daughter, Vivienne. Vivienne died in 1987 from leukemia.