Toiréasa Ferris (born 24 March 1980) is an Irish former

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

politician who has served as a

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

lor for

Tralee Tralee ( ; , ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the River Lee') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in ...

from 2003 to 2019.

Personal life

Ferris is a part-time tutor in law at Tralee Community College. She lives in

Ardfert Ardfert () is a village and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Kerry, Ireland. Historically a religious centre, the economy of the locality is driven by agriculture and its position as a dormitory town, being only from Tralee. T ...

, County Kerry with her husband Patrick and their two children. In 2001, Ferris spent seven months working in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

with a local workers' rights group.

Political career

Ferris started her political activism with

's youth wing

Ógra Shinn Féin Ógra Shinn Féin (colloquially known as Republican Youth, , and formerly, officially known as Sinn Féin Republican Youth, , from 2012 to March 2018) is the youth wing of the Irish political party Sinn Féin. Ógra Shinn Féin is active and ...

, in her native

and at the

University of Limerick University of Limerick (UL) () is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972, as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in Septemb ...

. Co-opted in 2003 to the

seat held by her father, Martin Ferris, she immediately became the first Sinn Féin

Cathaoirleach Cathaoirleach (; Irish language, Irish for Chair (officer), chairperson; plural: ) is the title of the chair (or speaker (politics), presiding officer) of Seanad Éireann, the sixty-member upper house of the Oireachtas, the legislature of Repub ...

(chairperson) of the council. She was elected to the Council in 2004, and became the second female Mayor of the Council in 2005, serving until 2006. On 18 October 2008, she was selected as a candidate in the European Parliament election in 2009 for the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

constituency. She received 64,671 of the first preference votes, coming third on the first count, but was not elected. In an article in the weekly newspaper ''

An Phoblacht ''An Phoblacht'' (Irish pronunciation: ; ) is a Sinn Féin-affiliated online Irish republicanism, Irish republican news platform which also publishes a quarterly print magazine format. Editorially the paper takes a Left-wing politics, left-wing ...

'' she gave an analysis of the current direction of the party, saying that the party "means nothing" to the bulk of people in the Republic, and that there was a perception amongst voters that Sinn Féin was a northern-based party. In the 2014 Kerry County Council election, Ferris was elected on the first count and topped the poll in the Tralee

local electoral area A local electoral area (LEA; ) is an electoral area for elections to Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authorities in Ireland. All elections in the Republic of Ireland, elections use the single transferable vote. Republic of Ir ...

. She retained her seat in 2019. The following month she ruled herself out of standing in the next general election on medical advice, while remaining on the county council. She resigned from the council on health grounds in August 2019.

''The Late Late Show'' interview

Ferris appeared on

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

's '' The Late Late Show'' in February 2006; in an interview with

Pat Kenny Patrick Kenny (born 29 January 1948) is an Irish broadcaster, who currently hosts the daily radio show ''The Pat Kenny Show'' on Newstalk and the current affairs show ''Pat Kenny Tonight'' on Virgin Media One. Prior to this, Kenny had a 41-ye ...

, she said she could not condemn the killing of Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996. She stated that "It wouldn't be fair to condemn one individual action when over 3,000 were killed

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

'']. I don't feel I have the right, or that it would be fair to condemn one individual act." ''The Late Late Show'' interview also caused comment because her "knee-length" skirt hiked up when she crossed her legs. RTÉ was sharply criticised for having their cameras pan her legs and skirt in the middle of the interview and creating a "tabloid" atmosphere and cheapening her appearance.

Fine Gael Fine Gael ( ; ; ) is a centre-right, liberal-conservative, Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann. The party had a member ...

councillors on Kerry County Council attempted to table a vote of no confidence. However, owing to the support of

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 ...

councillors, she survived by a wide margin.

References

External links

''The Kingdom'' article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferris, Toireasa 1980 births Living people Sinn Féin local councillors in the Republic of Ireland Politicians from County Kerry Mayors of places in the Republic of Ireland Alumni of the University of Limerick Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Members of Kerry County Council