Nora Owen

Nora Owen (born June 1945), was a senior Irish politician. She was elected as a Fine Gael TD between 1981 and 1987 and from 1989 until 2002. She has also served as Minister for Justice (1994-1997).

Nora O'Mahony was born in Dublin in 1945. She is a sister of Mary Banotti and a grand-niece of the Irish rebel Michael Collins. She was educated at Dominican Convent, County Wicklow and University College Dublin where she qualified as an industrial chemist. Owen was elected as a Fine Gael TD for the first time in 1981, serving until 1987. That year she became a member of the executive of Trócaire. She returned to Dáil Éireann in 1989 becoming Deputy-Leader of Fine Gael in 1993. The following year she became Minister for Justice, remaining in that post until 1997. Journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered in 1996 and in its aftermath Owen introduced the highly successful Criminal Assets Bureau to crack down on organised crime. In 2002 she became the first high-profile Fine Gael TD to lose her seat in Dublin North in the Party's disastrous general election.