Here's everything you need to know about the new TDs for Cork
Tommy Have Martin, Been In All Cairns Holly Gould Micheál And Cork Elected
A native of Turner’s Cross on Cork’s southside, Micheál Martin (64) was first elected to Dail Éireann for Cork South Central at his second attempt in 1989, four years after he won a seat on the then-Cork Corporation.
He has been re-elected at every election since, frequently as the poll topper.
Prior to becoming Fianna Fáil leader, he held several portfolios in various Fianna Fáil-led administrations including education, enterprise and employment and health in the late 1990s and 2000s and it was as minister for health that he introduced the much-praised smoking ban in 2004.
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Succeeding Brian Cowen as Fianna Fáil leader in 2011, he rebuilt the party from that year’s disastrous general election performance when it lost 57 seats, and since his return to Government in a coalition deal with Fine Gael and the Greens, he has served as both taoiseach and tánaiste.
Seamus McGrath (50) is the younger brother of outgoing Fianna Fáil Cork South-Central TD Michael McGrath.
He was well placed to hold his brother’s seat for Fianna Fáil in his first Dáil bid after achieving the highest number of first-preference votes in the country in the June local elections to hold his seat on Cork County Council.
Seamus's election came on the same day that Michael officially took up his role as EU commissioner for democracy, justice and the rule of law.
A native of Passage West, the younger McGrath’s first foray into electoral politics came in 2009 when he polled 3,996 votes to be elected to Cork County Council on the first count for the Carrigaline local electoral area, having been co-opted onto the council in 2007 to replace his brother.
A commerce graduate of UCC, where he topped his class each year, McGrath worked in retail before joining An Gárda Síochána and serving as a probationer garda in Fermoy, only to leave to manage his brother’s 2007 election campaign. He lives in Carrigaline with his wife Gayle and three daughters.
From Togher on Cork’s southside, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (35) put his first unsuccessful electoral outing in 2009 behind him when five years on he was elected to Cork County Council for the Carrigaline-Ballincollig Electoral Area in 2014 on the first count with 2,567 votes.
A fluent Gaeilgeoir, he followed that up with an impressive performance in his first Dáil bid, winning 6,986 votes to take the third seat in the then four-seat Cork South Central.
Last time out, he topped the poll, ahead of Fianna Fail’s Micheál Martin and Michael McGrath and Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney. A former Scout leader with the 5th Cork troop and a member of St Finbarr’s Hurling and Football Club, Mr Ó Laoghaire, who has a law degree from UCC, served as a political advisor to several Sinn Féin TDs in the early 2000s.
He lives in Togher with his wife Eimear Ruane McAleer and their three children.
The surprise election story on Leeside, Pádraig Rice (34) has been a member of the Social Democrats from the off, joining the party the day that he watched online from Oxford in 2015 and saw Catherine Murphy and Róisín Shortall launch it at a press conference in Dublin.
A native of Camp in West Kerry, he became politicised through student politics in UCC where he joined Labour Youth and helped to organise and lead the USI Education Not Emigration protest as well as campaigning for the Marriage Equality referendum in 2015.
A stint in the Oireachtas with Independent Senator Colette Kelleher was followed by a period managing the Cork Gay Project and then working for Soc Dems’s Cian O’Callaghan before he won a Cork City Council seat in June for the South Central Ward. He lives in Ballyphehane with his husband and campaign manager, Aaron O’Sullivan.
Jerry Buttimer returns as a TD after a gap of eight years. He dedicated his election to his parents.
“Today is a special day for me because it’s my mum’s birthday, and I know she’s in heaven watching over me,” he said, thanking her and his father for all they had done for him.
The Douglas man was first elected to the Dáil in 2011. After losing his seat, he became a senator and was selected as Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. A former Cork City Councillor, he was also the party spokesperson on transport and founder of Fine Gael LGBT.
He married Conchobar Ó Laoghaire in December 2017.
A full breakdown of results in the constituency can be found here.
Thomas Gould (56) fell short in his first bid to win a Dáil seat when he ran as the then-sitting Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien’s running mate in Cork North Central in 2016.
Four years later, when he replaced the retiring O’Brien, he came home on a tsunami of support with almost 14,000 votes.
A native of Knocknaheeny, where he is active in St Vincent’s GAA club, Mr Gould was first elected to Cork City Council in 2009 and served there until his election to the Dáil in 2020. His win was greeted with a chorus of his supporters singing “Vote Sinn Féin” to the air of Prince’s Purple Rain.
A logistics manager with a company on Cork’s northside prior to being elected to Dáil Éireann, he lives in Gurranebraher with his wife Michelle — who was elected to Cork City Council earlier this year — and their two daughters.
First elected to Dáil Éireann in a byelection in Cork North Central in 2019 after sitting Fianna Fáil TD Billy Kelleher became an MEP, Padraig O’Sullivan (40) comfortably held the seat a year later in the general election, with 8,158 first preferences in what was then a four-seat constituency,
A native of Little Island in East Cork, Mr O’Sullivan’s first foray into national politics was when he ran as an Independent under the New Vision banner in Cork North Central where he won just 1,020 votes or 1.96% of the vote.
He later joined Fianna Fáil and was twice elected to Cork County Council.
A former secondary school teacher, Mr O’Sullivan lives in Glanmire with his wife Bernie, and their three young children and he paid tribute to her in an interview in 2022, saying she does “a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of looking after the kids” given his life as a TD.
A solicitor from Dripsey in Mid-Cork, Colm Burke was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the last general election, but he has a long history of public representation for Fine Gael whom he joined when a student while studying law in UCC going on to serve as National Chairman of Young Fine Gael.
Initially co-opted onto Cork Corporation 1995, he served on the council until 2007 during which time he was elected Lord Mayor of Cork. He also served as an MEP for Ireland South from 2007 to 2009 before being elected to Seanad Éireann in 2011, serving there until 2020.
Appointed a Minister of State last April, Burke found himself making headlines in July when he was refused Holy Communion at Mass in Whitechurch by local priest Fr Gabriel Burke because of his voting for legislation enabling the Repeal of the Eighth Amendment.
The son of former Fianna Fáil Cork North Central TD Noel O’Flynn, Ken O’Flynn (45) entered the general election race on the back of an impressive local election performance in June when he won 3,134 votes when running for the first time for Independent Ireland.
Co-opted onto Cork City Council in 2008 to replace his brother, Gary, Ken O’Flynn was elected in the next three local elections as a Fianna Fáil candidate but he quit the party before the 2020 general election when he failed to get a party nomination and ran as an Independent, but lost out on the last seat.
Mr O’Flynn has been outspoken on the issue of immigration, calling for greater controls on people entering the country when the State is unable to house its own citizens. He says he is not opposed to foreigners coming to Ireland, pointing out his husband Francisco Cuevas is Spanish.
At 24 years of age, Labour’s new TD in Cork North Central, Eoghan Kenny — the party’s only TD in Cork — will be the youngest in Dáil Éireann.
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.
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.
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.
A full breakdown of results in the constituency can be found here.
The son of long-serving TD Donal, Aindrias Moynihan (51) was co-opted to replace his father on Cork County Council in 2003.
He was elected as a local councillor in 2004, 2009 and 2014 before successfully running for the Dáil in 2016 and 2020.
A native Irish speaker from the Múscraí Gaeltacht in the southern part of the constituency, Aindrias is married to Lisa and the couple have four children. He holds a degree in engineering from Cork Institute of Technology as well as a H Dip in marketing and management from University College Cork.
He is currently the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on wellbeing, public health and national drugs strategy and was chairperson of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight during the last Dáil as well as being a member of the Committee on the Irish Language, Gaeltacht and the Irish-speaking Community.
Since first being elected to the Dáil in 1997 Michael Moynihan has proved to be one of Fianna Fáil’s most reliable vote-getters having been re-elected at each of the five subsequent general elections.
Married to Brid O’Sullivan, the 56-year-old father of three is a native of Kiskeam and went to school in nearby Boherbue.
A farmer by trade he still operates a family dairy farm as well as running a full-time constituency office in Kanturk.
In the last Dáil, he was chair of the Committee on Disability Matters an area in which he has particular interest following his son’s autism diagnosis in 2020. He has previously been chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science; spokesperson on agriculture and food; spokesperson on communications, energy and natural resources; chair of Ógra Fianna Fáil and opposition chief whip.
The youngest of seven children, 41-year-old John Paul O’Shea lives at the family home in Laharn, Lombardstown and works in mental health services for the HSE.
He was elected to Cork County Council in 2009 as an independent and was re-elected in 2014 topping the poll and exceeding the quota on the first count.
In 2016, he ran for the Dáil as an independent but was eliminated on the ninth count finishing above outgoing Fine Gael TD Aine Collins. In 2018, he joined Fine Gael and was elected at the 2019 local elections.
He ran for the Dáil in 2020 but was eliminated on the fourth count and was subsequently elected in the 2024 local elections.
Following a directive from party headquarters that one candidate should come from the northern part of the constituency Mr O’Shea was automatically selected being the only nominee from the area.
A full breakdown of results in the constituency can be found here.
Sinn Féin’s Pat Buckley has retained his seat in Cork East on 9,194 votes, taking the third seat in the 12th count.
Mr Buckley (55) topped the poll there in 2020 with 23.1% of first preference votes (12,587 – well above the 10,909 quota).
He has served as Sinn Féin’s spokesman on mental health and suicide prevention. He was also a member of Cork County Council from 2014 to 2016.
Mr Buckley began campaigning as a mental health rights activist following a family tragedy through suicide.
He has been a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Public Petitions and has sat on Oireachtas Committees on health and mental health.
He is married with two children and was born and raised in East Cork.
The youngest member of Dáil Éireann when elected in 2020 aged 22, James O’Connor’s youth did not cow his willingness to criticise colleagues loudly.
At times a vocal critic of party leader Micheál Martin, who he once interned with, Fianna Fáil’s transport spokesperson threatened to quit the parliamentary party in 2021 after claiming he was “lied to” about funding road projects in his constituency. He has now been re-elected for the party.
Mr O’Connor was first elected to Cork County Council for Midleton in 2019. He then became the third youngest Fianna Fáil TD ever in 2020 when he won the fourth seat in Cork East with 12.9% of first preference votes.
Mr O’Connor (27) is from a farming family in Youghal. His mother is a food scientist and his father is a dairy farmer.
Aged 14, Mr O’Connor successfully lobbied then-minister for transport Leo Varadkar to make public transport fares more child-friendly when with Comhairle na nÓg.
New TD Noel McCarthy (63) had served as a councillor for 15 years, first for the Labour Party before switching to Fine Gael.
Originally from Cobh but now living in Fermoy, it will be the first time that Fermoy has a TD in 33 years and Cobh in 27 years, he said.
“They felt they hadn’t a voice. I want to be that voice for them and take their issues to national government,” he said.
A previous attempt to run for the Dáil in 2016 was unsuccessful but he said that he “learned a lot” from that attempt.
A small business owner, Mr McCarthy runs an off-licence in Fermoy.
First-time Social Democrat TD for Cork East, Liam Quaide said that his focused campaigning to improve disability services was crucial to his electoral success.
The 45-year-old clinical psychologist has been a councillor with the East Cork Municipal District since 2019.
He was a Green Party representative until last year when he switched to the Social Democrats.
He has actively campaigned against the closure of the Owenacurra Centre mental health service in Midleton and helped secure a multi-million euro investment in residential mental health services for the region.
He has also worked with community adult mental health teams and in hospital outpatient services.
He has two children Bláithín, 8, and Rossa, 3, with wife Róisín Cuddihy.
A full breakdown of results in the constituency can be found here.
A dry-stock cattle farmer from Lowertown near Schull on the Mizen Peninsula, Michael Collins first became involved in politics through community activism more than 30 years ago. A father of three adult children, the 56-year-old is in a long-term relationship with his partner Valerie Ward.
He was first elected as an independent local councillor in 2014 when he topped the poll and went on to win a Dáil seat at the 2016 General Election. At the 2020 General Election, he topped the poll and was elected on the first count.
In November 2023 he formed the Independent Ireland party with Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue, joined later by Roscommon-Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice. With Collins as leader, the party saw 23 candidates elected at the 2024 local elections including his two brothers Danny and John.
Former RTÉ journalist Ciaran Mullooly became the party’s first MEP when he was elected in Midlands-North West.
Holly Cairns lives on her family farm on Turk Head Peninsula and gave birth to her first child, a daughter, with her partner Barry Looney on election day.
The 35-year-old worked in disability services in Malta for several years before returning home to take over the family farm and business growing and selling organic vegetable seeds. She first became involved in politics while canvassing during the referendum on the Eighth Amendment which inspired her to join the Social Democrats and establish a branch in West Cork.
In 2019 she won a local council seat in Bantry by a single vote. In 2020 she successfully contested the General Election and quickly rose to national prominence in the Dáil.
In 2023 she was unanimously elected as Social Democrats party leader and in 2024 she led the party’s successful local election campaign gaining an additional 16 seats nationally for a total of 34.
Christopher O’Sullivan (42) has maintained a high profile in Cork South West since his election to the Dáil in 2020 with a strong social media presence.
A graduate of law, politics and Spanish from University College Cork the Clonakilty native married Sarah Redmond in 2023. He followed in the footsteps of his father Christy who was also a TD for the area when he was co-opted onto Cork Council Council to replace him as a local councillor in 2007.
He was elected in the 2009, 2014 and 2019 local elections and served as the mayor of County Cork from 2019 to 2020.
A wildlife enthusiast, he is a keen birdwatcher and volunteer whale-watching guide as well as being the party’s spokesperson on environment, climate action and biodiversity. During the last Dáil he was vice chair of the Committee on Environment and Climate Action and the parliamentary party’s Ógra liaison.
A full breakdown of results in the constituency can be found here.