Lisa Connell is standing as an Independent LGBT Candidate in Dublin South West Inner City/Dublin 8 area of Dublin City Council.

Lisa is not the first independent LGBT candidate to contest an election in Ireland – the first I believe was Liz Noonan who ran as a Lesbian Feminist Candidate in 3 Dáil elections in 1981 and twice in 1982 in Dublin South East.

In the 1989 General Election a number Independent Gay Candidates ran campaigns – Tonie Walsh in Dublin South East, Don Donnelly in Dublin North Central and Michael Foley (Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church) who got 1,122 first preferences and ran in Dublin South Central and I think there was a third candidate and will correct the post when I get an answer to an email!

In 1992 there were considerations towards running gay rights candidates (it was before decrminialisation) but instead campaigns to get parties to commit to equality and decriminalisation were run by lesbian and gay groups.

In terms of local and national elections since 1992 we’ve had a number of openly gay candidates running for election in several parties and there are some running in the local elections this year.

This year it seems we’re back to the 1980’s in terms of seeing an Independent LGBT Candidate join the fray. I’ll be back to the issue of single issue campaigns and lgbt rights no doubt but for now you can find out more on Lisa’s Facebook page and see links to various other media appearance.

I met Lisa last week and asked her why she was standing for election on an Independent LGBT based candidacy. (I’m still learning how to use the Zi6 – apologies for wobbles etc!)

Update:

Tonie Walsh has been in touch to confirm the third candidate in 1989 General Election (Michael Foley) and also to tell of his own campaign to run for election to Dublin Corporation in 1985 on an urban renewal, tenancy rights and better local government ticket.  So that’s the first openly gay candidate who ran for Dublin Corporation sorted  – and I’ll leave it to Tonie to tell the full story of his campaign, selection and manager – there’s a chapter in a book there HINT!