Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (; born 14 March 1968) is an Irish former politician who has served as a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for the Agricultural Panel from 2011 to 2018. Ó Clochartaigh was born and raised in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

, England. His parents came from the

Connemara Connemara ( ; ) is a region on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...

area of

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

. He attended

NUI Galway The University of Galway () is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Galway" (UCG) () from 1908 to 1997 and as ...

, graduating with a Commerce degree. He worked in

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 ...

theatre, and is a former manager and artistic director of An Taibhdhearc. He also worked in television production as producer of '' Fair City'' and '' Ros na Rún'', and in community development projects. He first entered politics as a member of the Labour Party, unsuccessfully contesting the Connemara area 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 ...

at the 2004 local elections. He subsequently left Labour and joined Sinn Féin, and was the party's candidate at the 2009 local elections and for

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( ; , ) is the lower house and principal chamber of the Oireachtas, which also includes the president of Ireland and a senate called Seanad Éireann.Article 15.1.2° of the Constitution of Ireland reads: "The Oireachtas shall co ...

in the Galway West constituency at the 2011 general election, but was not elected. In April 2011, he was elected to 24th Seanad on the Agricultural Panel and was re-elected in April 2016. In November 2017, he left

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 ...

, citing "serious disciplinary issues" within the party. However Sinn Féin claimed that Trevor left the party because "he was worried that a democratic vote of party members in the constituency would not select him to contest the election" and that just days before his leaving he had been advocating that two candidates instead of just one should be nominated at the party's local selection convention. He resigned from

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann ( ; ; "Senate of Ireland") is the senate of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (defined as the house of representatives). It is commonly called the Seanad or ...

on 5 February 2018, to take up a new role at the television station

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oclochartaigh, Trevor 1968 births Living people Alumni of the University of Galway Independent members of Seanad Éireann Irish television producers Members of the 24th Seanad Members of the 25th Seanad People from Huddersfield Politicians from County Galway Sinn Féin senators TG4 people Sinn Féin candidates in Dáil elections (post-1923) Agricultural Panel senators Labour Party (Ireland) politicians