Billy Lawless (born 4 July 1951) is an Irish former

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politician and businessman who served as a

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from 2016 to 2020, after being

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. Lawless is a native of Rahoon,

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

. In the 1980s, he was Chair of

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in the Galway West constituency and stood unsuccessfully for

Galway City Council Galway City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach na Gaillimhe) is the authority responsible for local government in the city of Galway, Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for hou ...

in 1991. He emigrated to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1998, having always harboured plans to open a business in the

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he made the decision after his daughter received a rowing scholarship to

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. He currently owns four restaurants in the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

area, employing 260 people, and is a board member and co-founder of the

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Business Immigration Coalition (IBIC) and Chair of Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform. Lawless has been credited with helping the cause of Irish immigrants and undocumented Irish in America, and was made Freeman of

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

in 2015 for these efforts. He was conferred with an

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in June 2015. On 11 May 2016,

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appointed Lawless to the

25th Seanad This is a list of the members of the 25th Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland. 49 Senators were elected in April 2016 when postal voting closed. The Taoiseach nominated an additional eleven members to the ...

, making him the first overseas Irish Senator. Lawless had close ties to the

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and was chosen to introduce the

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when he announced his plans for immigration reform. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the

2021 Seanad by-elections Two by-elections were held for vacancies in Seanad Éireann on Wednesday, 21 April 2021. The vacancies were caused by the resignations of Fine Gael's Michael W. D'Arcy from the Agricultural Panel in September 2020 to become chief executive of the I ...

. In 2021, Lawless was awarded the Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Award for Irish Community Support.https://www.dfa.ie/news-and-media/press-release/press-release-archive/2021/october

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawless, Billy 1951 births Living people Businesspeople from Chicago Independent members of Seanad Éireann Irish expatriates in the United States Members of the 25th Seanad Nominated members of Seanad Éireann Politicians from Galway (city)