At 24, Cork's new Labour TD Eoghan Kenny will be the Dáil's youngest
Elected For Picture: Cork North The Labour Chani Central Anderson Td Newly Kenny, Eoghan
For some, their electoral success might look like an overnight phenomenon. But for two of Cork’s new TDs, it’s the culmination of years of political activism.
At 24 years of age, Labour’s new TD in Cork North Central, Eoghan Kenny — the party’s only TD in Cork — will be one of the youngest in Dáil Éireann after he was deemed elected on Monday night following a recount.
Less than six months after his first local election saw him win a seat on Cork City Council, the Social Democrats's Pádraig Rice, 34, has won a seat in Cork South Central after his first general election campaign.
Mallow-born and raised, Mr Kenny has been politically active for half his life.
Just five years ago, he was in secondary school and pressing the Government to rebuild the fire-damaged Patrician Academy school building in Mallow.
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In April 2019, he appeared in a photograph with fellow students, published in the , after they wrote to the then education minister questioning the delay on a new permanent building to replace a block of classrooms destroyed by fire in 2016.
The students were being housed in prefabs after previously spending two years moving between different locations in the town — including a local GAA club, a hall belonging to a local charity, and a nearby primary school.
Mr Kenny, who was in sixth year at the time, had written on behalf of the student council at the 550-pupil school to then education minister Joe McHugh, seeking a firm commitment from him when work is going to commence on a building to replace the block of 11 classrooms which was gutted in the fire.
“For four months of my Transition Year, a number of year groups were being taught in the local GAA complex.
He said pupils were driven by bus from the school campus to the GAA complex in the morning and were dropped back there in the evening, while teachers were forced to drive around Mallow town to teach classes at the various locations.
He said a recent report by Department of Education inspectors had noted the lack of facilities, including the fact there is only one construction room and only one science lab with access to gas to cater for 550 pupils.
And he pointed out that students have had to live with rotting toilets in the prefabs.
“For nearly three years, not one single block has been laid on the school site, illustrating the lacklustre response from your department. Do you think this is good enough?” he wrote.
“If your son was a student in our school, would you think these sub-standard conditions were an acceptable environment to learn in?
Approval for the new school buildings finally came in 2022, and the new facilities finally opened last September.
He trained as a teacher, and teaches business and religion in Mayfield Community School. He has continued his activism with the Labour Party, working closely with former Labour TD Sean Sherlock.
He was co-opted earlier this year onto Cork County Council to replace James Kennedy in the Mallow electoral area — comfortably holding the seat in the June local elections.
He has spoken openly about life with epilepsy, and insists it does not define him.
For Mr Rice, from the outside, it looks like he came from nowhere to capitalise on the addition of a fifth seat to Cork South Central.
Maybe it was the "Holly Hop" and the swing to the SocDems, who have trebled their representation in Cork alone, but keen observers were saying for months that he was one to watch — given his almost decade of grassroots community work and political activism and his strong performance in City Hall since June.
Mr Rice, who has a law degree from UCC and a Master's in Public Policy from the University of Oxford, lives in Ballyphehane with his husband and campaign manager, Aaron O’Sullivan, and works as a policy and research manager. He has been involved with the Social Democrats since its foundation.
and we have been working on the ground ever since
“I have been involved in a range of community projects and organisations and, even before that, I was the student welfare officer in UCC in 2010," he said.
“I was involved in the marriage equality campaign, I was on the leadership team for the local Together for Yes campaign, I worked at the Gay Project, I’m on the board of Ballyphehane Community Association, and have been involved in various movements projects and campaigns, so this has taken nine years.”