In profile: Ireland’s 14 MEPs
Fourteen MEPs have been elected to represent Ireland in the European Parliament, including five first-time MEPs. Broadly, the election was characterised by resurgent performances for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, with Fianna Fáil securing its best European election results since 2004.
Dublin
Barry Andrews MEP
Fianna Fáil – Renew Europe
Elected for a second term to the European Parliament, Andrews, a former TD for the Dún Laoghaire constituency, is also the new chair of the European Parliament’s Development Committee and has taken a special interest in foreign and diplomatic affairs, advocating for Palestine, observing the 2023 Nigerian elections, and establishing the Brussels-Belfast Forum with members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. In 2023, he was awarded The Parliament Magazine’s Defence, Security and Space Award.
Regina Doherty MEP
Fine Gael – European People’s Party
Regina Doherty’s election is her first as an MEP, in a career which has taken her through Meath County Council, the Dáil, and the Seanad. Doherty was a TD in Meath East from 2011 to 2020 when she lost her seat. Immediately appointed by Taoiseach Micheál Martin to the Seanad following her seat loss, Doherty led Fine Gael in the upper house and was the leader of the Seanad between 2020 and 2022. She replaces Frances Fitzgerald as Fine Gael’s Dublin MEP following Fitzgerald’s retirement from politics.
Lynn Boylan MEP
Sinn Féin – The Left
Returning to the European Parliament after a five-year absence is Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan. Boylan, a Tallaght native, was previously a Dublin MEP between 2014 and 2019. After losing her seat in 2019, she was subsequently elected to the Seanad, before deciding to run for the European Parliament again in 2024. Her election was a highlight for Sinn Féin in what was a broadly underwhelming performance.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP
Labour Party – Socialists and Democrats
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin was elected to the European Parliament for the first time in the recent election, winning Labour’s first European seat since it was wiped out in 2014. Ó Ríordáin has been in politics since 2002, when he sat on Dublin City Council. A former teacher with 11 years of experience, Ó Ríordáin has served two Dáil terms and one term in the Seanad. In 2020, Ó Ríordáin was narrowly defeated in a Labour leadership contest, losing out to Alan Kelly TD.
South
Seán Kelly MEP
Fine Gael – European People’s Party
Elected for a fourth term in the European Parliament, Séan Kelly is Fine Gael’s European Parliament leader and Ireland’s longest-serving MEP, having been an MEP since 2009. A late-comer to politics, Kelly, 72, was president of the GAA between 2003 and 2006, becoming the first Kerry native to assume the role. This followed a long career as a teacher along with volunteering within Kerry GAA. He is a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.
Billy Kelleher MEP
Fianna Fáil – Renew Europe
Billy Kelleher was elected to a second term as an MEP in the recent election. The Cork native is a former farmer and a political veteran, having been a TD in Cork North-Central from 1997 to 2019 and a Senator between 1993 and 1997, during which time he served two brief stints as a Minister of State. Since being re-elected as an MEP, Kelleher has become the First Vice President of the Renew Europe Group in the Parliament, a centrist, liberal group.
Michael McNamara MEP
Independent – Renew Europe
Michael McNamara has been elected to the European Parliament for the first time. McNamara was elected as an independent, having previously served as a Labour TD between 2011 and 2016. During his spell on the coalition government’s backbenches, he was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party over his protests against the full privatisation of Aer Lingus. After leaving Labour in 2017, the Limerick native returned to the Dáil in 2020, being elected in County Clare as an independent.
Cynthia Ní Mhurchú MEP
Fianna Fáil – Renew Europe
A newcomer to elected politics, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú is a barrister and former TV and radio presenter who came to prominence in the 1990s, presenting the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 and radio shows on RTÉ. A former schoolteacher, Ní Mhurchú’s election in the South constituency marks the first time Fianna Fáil has elected two MEPs in this constituency. She has assumed membership of two committees: Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and the Committee on Petitions.
Kathleen Function MEP
inn Féin – The Left
Kathleen Function gained a seat for Sinn Féin in the South constituency in the recent election, having served as a TD for the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency between 2016 and 2024. Having previously worked as a trade union official, Function served two committee chairships during her time in Leinster House, as chair of the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement between 2016 and 2020, and later as chair of the Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration between 2020 and 2024.
Midlands–North-West
Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan MEP
Independent – The Left
Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan was re-elected to the European Parliament for a third time, having previously been a Roscommon TD between 2011 and 2014, and a councillor on Roscommon County Council between 2004 and 2011, where he served as mayor. Flanagan’s activism has mostly been focused on the legalisation of cannabis, agricultural policies – serving on the Parliament’s Agriculture Committee – as well as foreign policy advocacy for Palestine.
Barry Cowen MEP
Fianna Fáil – Renew Europe
Elected to the European Parliament for the first time, Barry Cowen is the third member of the Cowen dynasty to enter elected politics for Fianna Fáil, along with his brother – the former Taoiseach Brian – and his late father Bernard. Cowen was a councillor on Offaly County Council between 1991 and 2011 and became a TD for County Offaly after his brother retired from politics. Cowen was briefly in cabinet, serving as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for 18 days in 2022.
Nina Carberry MEP
Fine Gael – European People’s Party
A political novice, Nina Carberry’s election was her first foray into politics after a distinguished career as a horse jockey with having won seven Cheltenham Festival races. The County Meath native has assumed membership of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism.
Maria Walsh MEP
Fine Gael – European People’s Party
Maria Walsh was re-elected to a second term as an MEP, where she states her objectives are the establishment of an EU-wide mental health strategy and protecting Ireland’s corporation tax regime. Walsh, who was crowned the Rose of Tralee in 2014, is a former Defence Forces reservist and is a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
Ciaran Mullooly MEP
Independent Ireland – Renew Europe
Ciaran Mullooly was elected on behalf of the newly-established Independent Ireland party, which is broadly described as ‘populist’. Mullooly is a familiar figure to many having served as RTÉ’s midlands correspondent for 26 years. In spite of the anti-immigration and Eurosceptic views espoused by some of the party’s TDs, Mullooly decided to join the liberal centrist Renew Europe Group, alongside Fianna Fáil MEPs.
