Given the interest in George Lee, thought I’d do a post on celebrity candidates. There have been quite a number of candidates with public profiles before they ran for election. Some with success, others with a total lack of success.
There are those who were Celebrities or well known to the public prior to going for election.
Amongst those from Television and stage came Orla Guerin , Frank McNamara, Pat Cox, Mairead McGuinness, Jeananne Crowley, Donagh MacCarthy-Morrough, Dana and of course George Lee. Of these Cox, McGuinness, Dana and Lee had success at the polls
From other walks of life came Christine Buckley, Barney Rock, John O’Leary , Tom Parlon , Shane Ross, Fergal Quinn, Colm McEochaidh, Geraldine Kennedy, Brody Sweeney,
Tony Dempsey, Graham Geraghty, Adi Roche, Nuala Fennell, Colm O’Gorman, Mannix Flynn, Olive Braiden and Ivana Bacik. Of these Parlon, Kennedy, Dempsey, Flynn, Fennell, Ross and Quinn all had success
There are those that become Celebrities partly from Politics
The likes of Jackie Healy Rae , Richard Boyd-Barrett and David Norris
Those that became more well known in the media after political careers or election attempts
Such as Noel Whelan and Ivan Yates
The Judiciary is another area with a lot of ex politicians or election candidates,
Judge Henry Abbot, Michael White, Adrian Hardiman, George Bermingham, Pat McCartan
There are candidates too that gain national prominence for a small time because of their posters.
Recent examples would include John Bracken and Clifford T Reid.
Point is George Lee was by no means the first and will by no means be the last ‘Celebrity Candidate’.
I’ve surely missed a good few too.