Chicago-based FG stalwart and friend of the Taoiseach

BILLY LAWLESS is the first person living abroad ever to be appointed to serve in the Seanad. The Chicago-based restaurateur was born on Christmas Eve 1950 and was raised on a dairy farm on the outskirts of Galway city in the townland of Dangan.

He and his teacher wife Anne married just before Mr Lawless’s 21st birthday in December 1971. At the time he was making a living as a farmer. However, six years later the family farm was sold to University College Galway, and he got involved in the bar business.

During the 1980s he was involved in forestry but in the early 1990s he went back to the pub trade. He ran a number of bars in the Galway area until he and his family emigrated to America in 1997.

Since settling in the Chicago area where he has opened a number of pubs and restaurants, he has become a prominent member of the immigration reform lobby. He befriended Barack Obama when the US President was a little-known Democratic senator.

Mr Lawless is also a close friend of Enda Kenny. The pair got to know each other through Fine Gael and when Mr Lawless received an international People of the Year award in Galway three years ago, Mr Kenny sent a This Is Your Life-style video tribute to mark the occasion.

That was nine months before Mr Kenny’s daughter Aoibhinn went to Chicago on a J1 visa and worked at Mr Lawless’s Gage Restaurant for several months. Mr said he heard on the ‘bush telegraph’ a ‘friend’s child’ was on her way over.

Despite failing to win a seat on Galway City Council for Fine Gael in 1991, Mr Lawless maintains close contact with the party. He often returns from Chicago to work on Fine Gael election campaigns and in 2011 he donated €1,000 to Brian Walsh’s successful bid to be a TD.