So Kenny Egan has finally taken the plunge and announced that hes running for Fine Gael in the Local Elections. I thought I’d update this post on celebrity candidates. There have been quite a number of candidates with public profiles before they ran for election. Some with success, others with a total lack of success.
There are those who were Celebrities or well known to the public prior to going for election.
Amongst those from Television and stage came Orla Guerin , Frank McNamara, Pat Cox, Mairead McGuinness, Jeananne Crowley, Donagh MacCarthy-Morrough, Ted Nealon ,former RTE reporter Mary McAleese and of course George Lee. There were singers too like Dana , Sonny Knowles ran for Fianna Fail , as did TR Dallas (Tom Allen). Of these Cox, McGuinness, Dana, Nealon, Allen and Lee had success at the polls
From Sport came such GAA men as Barney Rock, Seán Flanagan, Tommy Murphy, Jack Lynch, John Doyle, Seamus Kirk, Paddy Lalor, John O’Leary, Michael Donnellan, Graham Geraghty, Tony Dempsey , ex GAA president Sean Kelly , John O’Mahoney , Kerry legends Mick O’Connell, Joe Keohane and Jimmy Deenihan. Rugby gave amongst others Dick Spring , Gerry ‘Ginger’ McLoughlin and Jim Glennon.
From other walks of life came Eamon McCann, Christine Buckley, , Tom Parlon , Shane Ross, Fergal Quinn, Colm McEochaidh, Geraldine Kennedy, Brody Sweeney, Mick Wallace,
, Adi Roche, Nuala Fennell, Colm O’Gorman, Mannix Flynn, Olive Braiden and Ivana Bacik. Of these Parlon, Kennedy, Flynn, Wallace, Fennell, Ross and Quinn all had success
There are those that become Celebrities partly from Politics
The likes of Jackie Healy Rae , Richard Boyd-Barrett , David Norris , Luke ‘Ming’ Flanaghan and the Late Bernie Murphy.
Those that became more well known in the media after political careers or election attempts
Such as Noel Whelan and Ivan Yates
The Judiciary is another area with a lot of ex politicians or election candidates,
Judge Henry Abbot, Michael White, Adrian Hardiman, George Bermingham, Pat McCartan , Seamus Hughes
There are candidates too that gain national prominence for a small time because of their posters.
Recent examples would include John Brackenand Clifford T Reid.
Kenny Egan is by no means the first and will by no means be the last ‘Celebrity Candidate’. Celebrity does not mean electoral success either. Oh and here he is on the front of a Fianna Fail newsletter…..
On the other side its rare enough that you will have Celebrities endorsing Politicians or Parties here. Duncan Stewart has done some work with the Greens.
Here John Stafford is endorsed by such luminaries as Dickie Rock and Barney McKenna. Whilst here John Colgan has a picture of himself with Esther Rantzen.
In the 2010 UK election each party had Celebrity backers.
For instance from Coronation Street Vera Duckworth and Ken Barlow backed different parties.
Labour had a leaflet with endorsements from amongst others Alex Ferguson, Ross Kemp, Eddie Izzard, JK Rowling and Patrick Stewart.
Irish Election Literature 
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