John Whelan (born 24 March 1961) is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Labour Party politician and former member of

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

. A former journalist, Whelan was editor of the ''

Leinster Express The ''Leinster Express'' is a regional newspaper in Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is sep ...

'' newspaper. He joined the Labour Party in 2010 and was selected as that party's candidate for the Laois–Offaly constituency at the 2011 general election. The selection convention was highly controversial, with the convention itself ending after 15 minutes in "total chaos". A number of members left the Labour Party and joined the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

and contested the constituency unsuccessfully while a number of others canvassed for Sinn Féin candidate Brian Stanley. Whelan polled 5,802 votes (7.8%) being beaten to the final seat by

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...

Seán Fleming Seán Fleming (born 27 February 1958) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs since December 2022. He previously served as Minister of State at the Department of Finance from ...

. He was elected to

on the

Labour Panel The Labour Panel ( ga, An Rolla Oibreachais) is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (the legislature of Ireland). The Labour Panel elects eleven senators. ...

in April 2011. In 2016, he again unsuccessfully ran for a Dáil seat in Laois. Whelan works as a PR consultant as Communicate Ireland along with journalist

John Drennan John Drennan (real name Sean Armstrong) is an Irish political journalist and writer. He is a columnist for the ''Sunday Independent'', an occasional TV panelist and a frequent contributor to radio shows. From County Laois he was educated at St. P ...

.About Us
Communicate Ireland.

References

External links

John Whelan's page on the Labour Party website
1961 births Living people Irish journalists Irish newspaper editors Labour Party (Ireland) senators Members of the 24th Seanad Politicians from County Laois {{Ireland-senator-stub