Seán Ó Neachtain (born 22 May 1947) is an Irish former

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

politician. He was a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

for the Connacht-Ulster from 2002 and North-West constituencies from 2004, when he was substituted for

Pat "the Cope" Gallagher Patrick Gallagher (; born 10 March 1948) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal constituency since the 2024 general election, and previously from 1981 to 1997, 2002 to 2009, 2016 to 2020. He serv ...

, until 2009. He was a member of the Transport and Tourism Committee, as well as the Fisheries Committee. Ó Neachtain was instrumental to the recognition of the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

as an official working language of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. After obtaining a BA (hons) in 1969, Ó Neachtain became a school teacher. He worked in this capacity through the 1970s and 1980s. He was involved in regional politics around Galway and western Ireland from 1979, and served as a member of

Galway County Council Galway County Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for ho ...

from 1991 to 2002. He made his first foray into European politics when he was appointed as a member of the

Committee of the Regions The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...

in 1994. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Galway West constituency at the 1997 general election. On 20 April 2009, he announced that he would not be contesting the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent s ...

due to health concerns.

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* (The domain is now parked.) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oneachtain, Sean 1947 births Living people Fianna Fáil MEPs Irish schoolteachers Members of Galway County Council MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 1999–2004 MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 2004–2009 Politicians from County Galway Fianna Fáil candidates in Dáil elections