Maureen Dowd, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, became a columnist on The New York Times Op-Ed page in 1995 after having served as a correspondent in the paper's Washington bureau since 1986.
She has covered four presidential campaigns and served as White House correspondent. She also wrote a column, "On Washington," for The New York Times Magazine.
Dowd joined The New York Times as a metropolitan reporter in 1983. She began her career in 1974 as an editorial assistant for The Washington Star, where she later became a sports columnist, metropolitan reporter and feature writer. When the Star closed in 1981, she went to Time magazine.
Born in Washington, D.C., Dowd received a BA degree in English literature from Catholic University (Washington, D.C.) in 1973.
Dowd’s father, a police detective, came from Co. Clare, where the family visited many times.   Her mother was a proud Irish American, Peggy Meenehan, who led a demonstration at the British Embassy after Bloody Sunday when 14 were shot by British forces in Derry.

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