Jennifer Murnane-O'Connor

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor is a Fianna Fáil Senator from Carlow. She was elected to the Labour Panel of the 25th Seanad in April 2016, having narrowly missed out on a Dáil seat in February of that year.

Political career

Murnane O'Connor first ran for the Dáil in 2011, when she polled a respectable 6% of the first preference vote in Carlow–Kilkenny at a time when support for Fianna Fáil at a national level had reached its lowest point since the party was founded.

She did not run in the 2015 by-election in the constituency, caused by the appointment of Phil Hogan to the European Commission, but was chosen to contest the 2016 General Election as the Carlow-based candidate on a Fianna Fáil ticket that also featured sitting TDs John McGuinness and Bobby Aylward (who won the 2015 by-election). Murnane O'Connor polled 12% of the first preference vote this time, and looked set to take the 5th seat in the five-seat constituency, ahead of her in-county rival, Fine Gael's Pat Deering. However, a remarkable sequence of transfers saw Deering re-elected on the 11th count.

Murnane O'Connor was elected to the 25th Seanad, on the Labour Panel, in April 2016.

Policy focus

Murnane O'Connor's main focuses are on local issues and generating jobs and investment in her native Carlow town. As a result, she is generally very popular in the town and its vicinity.

Personal life

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor is the daughter of former Carlow County Councillor Jimmy Murnane, who served on the local council for several years. She was co-opted to Carlow Urban District Council in 1999 following her father's retirement. She topped the polls for both for the Urban & County Council at the following elections.

Prior to her election as a politician at a national level, she worked in Graham's; a shoe shop in Carlow town.