LGBT campaigner eyes EU seat for FF
Yes Equality boss Brady wants to represent Dublin
MARRIAGE equality campaigner Tiernan Brady is seeking the Fianna Fáil nomination to be an MEP.
He is vying to be the party’s Dublin candidate in next spring’s European election.
Mr Brady unsuccessfully sought the same nomination in 2014, but then went on to play a major role for the Yes side during the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum.
In 2016 he became the director of the successful Australian marriage equality campaign.
A Fianna Fáil source confirmed at the weekend to the Irish Daily Mail that Mr Brady is seeking the nomination to get on the ticket as the party’s candidate.
The European Parliament elections are set to be held on the same day as the local elections, on May 24, 2019.
It is understood that in recent weeks Mr Brady has been attending a number of Fianna Fáil delegate meetings around Dublin city, where he has been ‘putting’ his pitch to members, according to a well-placed source.
Should Mr Brady be put forward as the Fianna Fáil candidate, it may be viewed by many as sending out a strong message for the party.
Fianna Fáil is often viewed as having a traditional and conservative tendency, and during the recent referendum on repealing the constitutional ban on abortion, almost half of the parliamentary party posed for a photo in which they advocated for no change to the Constitution.
However, a party source said that should Mr Brady’s bid to get on the ticket be successful, they believe it ‘would send a very strong message, as well, that we are a broader party than maybe people think’.
Mr Brady previously served two
‘He’s a perfect fit for Dublin voters’
terms as a Fianna Fáil councillor in his native Donegal, and also attempted to get on the ticket for Europe in 2014. However, he lost out to Mary Fitzpatrick, who was ultimately not elected to the European Parliament.
The decision will go to a convention of the party’s Dublin members, likely to be held in January.
Other names who have been linked with Fianna Fáil and the European election include former GOAL boss Barry Andrews and exminister Conor Lenihan.
It is understood Mr Brady’s potential candidacy would have the backing or support of several senior figures in the party.
Speaking about the campaigner and activist, one party source told the Mail they believe ‘he’ll be a perfect fit for the Dublin electorate’. ‘I think he will bring a national and international reputation to the table as a campaigner on social issues,’ the source said. ‘He sought the nomination in 2014 and he was beaten by Mary Fitzpatrick. He has obviously rekindled the interest but what I would say is that we would be lucky to get him, given his reputation and given what he has achieved in the intervening period.’
Mr Brady was the political director for the Yes Equality campaign during the historic same-sex marriage campaign in 2015.
He then moved to Australia in 2016 where he was the director of that country’s successful marriage equality campaign. He has since returned to Dublin and is now at the helm of the global Equal Future 2018 campaign.
In the recent biography Leo Varadkar – A Very Modern Taoiseach, it was revealed that Mr Brady received a phone call from a friend with Fine Gael connections approximately 18 months before the marriage equality referendum, telling him ‘a member of the Dáil was considering “coming out” [as gay] and asked whether [Mr Brady] would provide counsel’.
A meeting with this politician was eventually set up and it turned out to be the then health minister, Mr Varadkar.