Senator
Malcolm Byrne
Senator
Assumed office
29 June 2020
ConstituencyCultural and Educational Panel
Teachta Dála
In office
November 2019 – February 2020
ConstituencyWexford
Personal details
Born (1974-04-25) 25 April 1974[1]
Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland
Political partyFianna Fáil
Alma materUniversity College Dublin

Malcolm Byrne (born 25 April 1974) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as a Senator for the Cultural and Educational Panel since April 2020. He previously served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wexford constituency from 2019 to 2020.[2]

He was elected to the Dáil in a by-election in November 2019, but lost his seat in the subsequent general election in February 2020.[3] He was a member of Wexford County Council from 2009 to 2019.[1][4]

Early life

Born in Gorey, County Wexford, in 1974. Byrne is the eldest child from a family of five. He attended CBS Secondary and Loreto and CBS Primary Schools in Gorey, later studying law at University College Dublin.[5] He was secretary of the Kevin Barry Cumann while at UCD.[6] Byrne was involved in student politics; he was education officer for both UCD Students' Union and the Union of Students in Ireland, and served as an executive member of the European Students' Union.[4][7]

Byrne has described the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre and the fall of the Berlin Wall as influencing his decision to enter politics.[6]

He was Head of Communications with the Higher Education Authority until 2019, and has been Vice-President of the National Youth Council of Ireland. In 2014, he was named as one of the European 40 Under 40, in the European Young Leaders Programme.[4]

Political career

When first elected to Gorey Town Council on the first count in 1999, he was its youngest member at the age of 25.[1] He topped the poll again at the 2004 local elections.[1] He was first elected to Wexford County Council in 2009 for the Gorey local electoral area, and elected Chairman following his 2014 re-election.[8][9]

In January 2006, The Sun included Byrne's picture on the cover of its Irish edition beneath the headline "Bertie's FF Man in Gay Web Shame,"[10] revealing that Byrne had a profile on the dating website Gaydar.[10] Byrne responded at the time: "I have not, nor have I ever, done anything illegal and I am not a hypocrite in any way. My views on gay rights issues are well known. I am not married with four children or anything like that, so there is no suggestion of hypocrisy."[1] His family and political career suffered as a result and he was not selected for candidacy in the 2007 general election following this incident.[10] Byrne later described how it was a journalist from The Gorey Echo had first approached him: "The first few questions were about roads. Then the journalist said, 'Are you aware you have a profile on this dating website?'" When he confirmed that the profile was his, Byrne experienced a sleepless night before The Gorey Echo outed him locally: "I was ringing around people I knew and my parents were ringing around people … my grandmother didn't know and a lot of my extended family and my friends didn't know". Gorey Echo group editor Tom Mooney defended publication by saying he believed Byrne's behaviour to be "unfitting of a public representative".[6]

Byrne was a candidate for Fianna Fáil in the 2016 general election in the Wexford constituency, but did not win a seat.[8][11]

He contested the 2019 European Parliament election for Fianna Fail in the South constituency, having unexpectedly beaten Cork TD Billy Kelleher in the vote for the party's nomination.[12] However, Kelleher was later added to the ticket.[13] Fianna Fáil then divided the constituency geographically, asking people in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow to vote for Byrne, and those in counties Cork, Kerry, Clare and Limerick to vote for Kelleher.[14] Kelleher won 11.69% of the first preference votes (FPV) and was elected on the 17th count. Byrne won 9.62% of the FPV, was eliminated on the 16th count.[15][16]

Byrne was elected as a TD at the 2019 Wexford by-election.[17] Andrew Bolger was co-opted to Byrne's seat on Wexford County Council following his election to the Dáil.[18] His maiden speech was about housing solutions and the need to address the challenges facing Generation Rent. In an interview he said he could envisage a United Ireland where the 12th of July and Saint Patrick's Day were public holidays and spoke about how Ireland needs to ensure Unionists feel at home in a new agreed state and that may mean addressing issues such as Ireland joining the Commonwealth.[19]

Byrne lost his Dáil seat at the next general election, on 8 February 2020,[20][21][22] following what he called "a dirty campaign".[20] His defeat after only 71 days made him the TD with the second-shortest term of service, after the Anti H-Block TD Kieran Doherty, who died on hunger strike in August 1981 only 52 days after his election.[23]

On 31 March 2020, Byrne was elected to Seanad Éireann at the 2020 election.[24] He was named as Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Higher Education, Innovation and Science by Taoiseach Micheál Martin in July 2020.[25]

As a Senator, Byrne has been a vocal critic of human rights abuses in China. In February 2021, he became co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, along with Senator Barry Ward of Fine Gael.[26]

Personal life

Byrne is openly gay. As of 2020, he is single and has described politics as "almost like an addiction", which makes relationships difficult.[6] He lives in Gorey.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Cruel smear campaign by rivals won't beat me says gay FF councillor". Sunday Independent. 29 January 2006. Archived from the original on 30 March 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "Malcolm Byrne". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  3. ↑ "Fine Gael loses out as all seats filled in by-elections". RTÉ News. 30 November 2019. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 "Byrne wins place in Euro 'top 40'". Gorey Guardian. 29 January 2014. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "Personal details". Fiannafail.ie. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Lynch, Donal (27 September 2020). "When Senator Malcolm Byrne's sexuality featured on the front of a newspaper, he knew his life would not be the same again, he tells Dónal Lynch". Sunday Independent. Dublin. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  7. ↑ "Student to stand in election". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  8. 1 2 "Malcolm Byrne". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  9. ↑ "Gorey's Malcolm Byrne is new chairman of Wexford Co. Council". Wexford Echo. 10 June 2014. Archived from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 Finnegan, Brian (14 April 2007). "Out of touch". Irish Independent. Dublin. Archived from the original on 14 October 2018.
  11. ↑ "Election 2016: Wexford". The Irish Times. Dublin. 29 February 2016. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  12. ↑ Ó Cionnaith, Fiachra (16 March 2019). "Billy Kelleher suffers shock loss in bid to become MEP candidate". Irish Examiner. Cork. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  13. ↑ Healy, Alan (22 March 2019). "Billy Kelleher is added to Fianna Fáil's European election ticket for Ireland South". The Echo. Cork. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  14. ↑ Kelly, Fiach (22 May 2019). "Fine Gael tries to save second Ireland South seat as Fianna Fáil presses for gains". The Irish Times. Dublin. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  15. ↑ "EU election results hub: Ireland South". The Irish Times. Dublin. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  16. ↑ Pádraig Byrne, Pádraig (8 June 2019). "So close yet so far for FF's Malcolm". New Ross Standard. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  17. ↑ Bray, Jennifer (30 November 2019). "Wexford byelection: Fianna Fáil's Malcolm Byrne tops poll". The Irish Times. Dublin. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  18. ↑ Walsh, Dan (20 January 2020). "Welcome for Council's youngest member Andrew Bolger". Wexford Today. Archived from the original on 14 March 2020.
  19. ↑ O'Connell, Hugh. "FF TD: United Ireland could celebrate The Twelfth and rejoin Commonwealth". Irish Independent. Dublin. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  20. 1 2 Gallagher, Conor (10 February 2020) [9 February 2020]. "Wexford results: Verona Murphy elected on 11th count". The Irish Times. Dublin. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  21. ↑ "Election 2020: Wexford". The Irish Times. Dublin. 10 February 2020. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  22. ↑ "General Election 2020 Live results: Wexford". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 9 February 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  23. ↑ "Labour hits rock bottom and the second-shortest serving TD ever: 6 election records made this year". TheJournal.ie. 11 February 2020. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  24. ↑ "Seanad general election 2020". www.oireachtas.ie. Oireachtas. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  25. ↑ ""There Is A Very Strong Fianna Fáil Team In Seanad Éireann And Our Range Of Spokespersons Reflect The Wealth And Depth Of Talent In Our Team." – Chambers". www.fiannafail.ie. Fianna Fáil. 6 July 2020. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  26. ↑ Daly, Adam (27 February 2021). "Oireachtas members join international alliance pushing for tougher stance on China". TheJournal.ie. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
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