Mark Dearey of the Green Party
Local councillor Mark Dearey has been chosen as one of the Green Party’s four candidates for this summer’s European Parliament elections.
The former Senator, who will also be running in the Dundalk-Carlingford area for a seat on Louth County Council, has been chosen to run in the Midlands-North-West constituency. The four seat constituency includes Louth, Meath, Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Roscommon, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal.
Other candidates so far confirmed to be running in the constituency include Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy and independents Marian Harkin and Ronan Mullen.
He will be joined on the Green Party ticket by former communications minister Eamon Ryan (Dublin), ex-Greenpeace activist Grace O’Sullivan (Ireland South) and East Belfast Green Party founder Ross Brown (Northern Ireland).
The selection convention took place in the Central Hotel in Dublin on Saturday.
Cllr Dearey is well known in the area as publican of The Spirit Store on George’s Quay.
The 50-year-old, who now lives in Omeath, has been an elected representative in the area for a decade but first came to local prominence 20 years ago when he and three others took a court action against British Nuclear Fuels Limited to seek an end to reprocessing at Sellafield.
Cllr Dearey is also the Green Party’s non-parliamentary spokesperson for Finance and a director of Turas, the addiction counselling service.
He will be joined on the Green Party ticket for the Louth County Council elections by his sister-in-law, Cllr Marianne Butler.
Talk of the Town 