A few people have dropped me emails, suggesting that I write something of an introduction to who I am on the blog, to give people an idea of what I’m involved in both within the Labour Party, and in wider general life. This post will try to satisfy that!
I am 25 years old, and live in Marino on the northside of Dublin (currently part of Dublin North-Central constituency, but it seems unlikely that Dublin North-Central will even exist after the publishing of the Boundary Commission report in late-October). I was brought up in the border counties, living in Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, and Dundalk, Co. Louth, but moved to Dublin to read English, German and Philosophy in UCD once my Leaving Cert was out of the way.
Nowadays, I work as a Senior Project Officer for a Japanese Financial Services company, having spent several years working in Hedge Fund Administration. I’m also studying part-time with the Open University towards a BA in Politics and Government. I’m a member of AMICUS trade union/UNITE Irish Section, and represent them on the ICTY Youth Committee.
Since joining the Labour Party, I have always tried to develop my relationships with various sections of the party, with a particular focus on campaigning both within the party and in wider society. I have served as Vice-Chair and Campaigns Officer of Labour Youth, Treasurer of Labour LGBT, and Youth Officer of Dublin North-Central Labour Party (all since 2005), and was recently elected to the Co-ordinating Council of Labour Equality. I am also a member of the party’s Web Advisory Group, and act as an administrator for the internal Labour Members’ Forum. During the General Election campaign this year, I was fortunate enough to get to campaign with Eric Byrne, Joanna Tuffy, Joan Burton and Derek McDowell, as well as working in Labour HQ for the short campaign.
One of my main areas of interest is in campaigning for Equality, and this has led me to be involved with several organisations outside Labour, while also being a supporter of both Labour Equality and Labour Women. In 2005, I was one of the founding members of Equal Ireland, a lobbying group established to campaign for full equality for all minority communities. I am currently Chairperson of Dublin Pride Festival Committee which is responsible for organising the Dublin Pride festival every year, and I am a member of Choice Ireland. I am also a member of the Amnesty International Irish Section.
One of my hobbies is web-design, and a combination of this and my political interest led to my becoming a member of the Content Team at Politics.ie. I’ve also been involved in the creation of websites such as Ruairi Quinn’s.
By way of an introduction, I think that will suffice, but please feel free to contact me at any stage over the coming weeks. I’ll be using this blog to explain some of my motivations for running for the NEC, as well as expanding on some of the ideas I’m fortunate to be getting to discuss with branches and constituencies all around the country.
