Bishop Irish comes full circle

"I didn't know the church in the West very well," she says. "It's been a combination of invention and discovery. (Members of the Episcopal Church) are very conscious of Mormons. They live as a minority here. And I've heard it said that they saw me as a bridge person. Every bishop they had had was an Eastern white male.

"It has been very challenging and overwhelming. Some (inside the church) have a problem with a woman in authority. They can make it difficult for you to lead. I'm in a good place right now. It's the best it's ever been. It's good enough now to do some really good work."

Being a woman sent to a region dominated by another religion presented enough challenges, but there was one that proved even more difficult. In October 1999, at the urging of friends, she went public with her alcoholism and announced that she would take time off to seek help. She went to rehab, where doctors told her she would be the most difficult person they had ever treated because she was self-confident and successful.

"What I finally understood was that it was a drug," she says. "It's not immorality. It's a disease. There's a lot of shame that attaches to it. I was confronted by it by others. Close colleagues in the office. When people confront you, it's an alternative to going all the way to the bottom. All I want to say about this is that I share my story if it will help me to know that others know — so they don't keep offering me drinks. And I would always share my story with a suffering alcoholic. There were people who were sympathetic, and there were those who weren't. The LDS Church leaders were magnificent. They wrote me letters. I will never forget that."

She continues to participate in support programs to beat her disease. But her alcoholism and that time in her life — and for that matter, much of her family life — she declines to discuss in detail.

"In the Middle Ages, curiosity was regarded as a sin when you wanted to know something about someone's dark side," she says. "There is a lot of that out there about my family."

'I love my life'

Friends say the bishop's life took a happy turn when she married Fred Quinn 2 1/2 years ago. They had been friends for many years. A retired foreign service officer, he is a published author, a teacher at the University of Utah and serves as a substitute priest when he is needed. They originally met while working at the Episcopal Church in Washington.

"Her husband is wonderful, and he has just enhanced her life," Williams says. "Everyone who knew her before can see a wonderful new aspect of her life."

"I love my life," says Bishop Irish. "I have four great children. I have a wonderful husband. And I love my work."

Of her children, Bishop Irish likes to say, "They're not cookie-cutter children."