Mark Dearey (born 19 March 1963) is an Irish

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

politician who served as a Senator from 2010 to 2011, after being

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Political career

Dearey was a member of

Louth County Council Louth County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Lú) is the authority responsible for local government in County Louth, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and c ...

for the

. He was elected to the Dundalk Town Council in 2004 and re-elected in 2009, he was also elected to the County Council for the first time. He was re-elected to the County Council in 2014. He was the Green Party candidate at the 2007 general election in the

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

constituency and received 7.6% of first preference votes, but was not elected. In the 2011 general election, his vote declined to 4.7% of first preference votes. In 2012, he was selected as the Green Party's Spokesperson for Finance. He ran unsuccessfully as the Green Party candidate in the Midlands–North-West constituency for the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

and received 1.5% of the first preference votes. He was also an unsuccessful candidate in the Louth constituency at the 2016 general election. He did not contest the 2019 local elections. He contested the 2020 general election for the Green Party in Louth, but was not elected.

Background

He first came to public attention in County Louth in 1994, when he and three others from the county took a court action against

British Nuclear Fuels British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) was a nuclear energy and fuels company owned by the UK Government. It was a manufacturer of nuclear fuel (notably MOX), ran reactors, generated and sold electricity, reprocessed and managed spent fuel (main ...

, to seek an end to reprocessing at Sellafield."Irish courts will hear nuclear closure plea", ''The Times'', 28 October 1996, p8. In the early 1990s, he worked as a secondary schoolteacher in

Coláiste Éanna Coláiste Éanna Christian Brothers School is a Roman Catholic secondary school for boys in Ballyroan, Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1967 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers to serve the needs of the Ballyroan and adjacent parishes. ...

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, before embarking on a career in organic horticulture where he worked for nine years. He then acquired the music venue and bar, The Spirit Store in Dundalk which he still owns and manages. He is a Director of Turas, a Dundalk based, addiction counselling service. He is a founding member of the Newry Dundalk Farmers Market, Chairman of the Dundalk St. Patrick's Day Committee, and a former board member of Friends of the Earth, Ireland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dearey, Mark 1963 births Living people Green Party (Ireland) senators Irish schoolteachers Local councillors in County Louth Members of the 23rd Seanad People from Dundalk Politicians from County Louth Nominated members of Seanad Éireann Alumni of University College Cork