Background
McManus was born in 1947 in Montreal, Canada.
McManus was born in 1947 in Montreal, Canada.
She studied Architecture at University College Dublin, where she shared a drawing desk with Ruairi Quinn.
She served as a Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) for the Wicklow constituency from 1992 to 2011. Her first novel Acts of Subversion was nominated for the Aer Lingus/Irish Times Literature Prize. McManus was also a weekly columnist with the Sunday Tribune (1986–1992).
Later, she was elected to Wicklow County Council.
She helped establish a women"s refuge in Bray in 1978 and was its convenor until 1991. McManus was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1992 general election.
She retained her seat in every subsequent election until her retirement in 2011. In 1999 the Democratic Left merged with the Labour Party, and in 2002 McManus was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.
Another former Democratic Left Territorial Decoration Pat Rabbitte, became leader of the party.
She also became the Labour Party Spokesperson for Health. She was the deputy leader of the Labour Party and party Spokesperson for Health from 2002 to 2007. Following the resignation of Pat Rabbitte on 23 August 2007, she was acting leader of the Labour Party until September 2007 but chose not to stand for re-election as deputy leader when a deputy leadership election was held.
Joan Burton replaced her as deputy leader.
She was party spokesperson on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from 2007 to 2011. She retired from politics at the 2011 general election.
She was formerly married to John McManus. The couple had four children.
They publicly separated in 2006.
She first ran for political office in 1979 when she was elected to Bray Town Council for the Sinn Féin the Workers" Party. She was then a member of the Democratic Left party. Between 1994 and 1997 the Democratic Left formed a government with Fine Gael and the Labour Party and McManus became Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal.
During this period she was also a member of the Northern Ireland Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. John McManus, a physician in general practice, was a Labour member of Bray Town Council from 1999 to 2009.