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Fintan Warfield

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Senator
Fintan Warfield
Warfield in 2023
Senator
Incumbent
Assumed office
8 June 2016
ConstituencyCultural and Educational Panel
Personal details
Born1992 (age 31–32)
Harold's Cross, Dublin, Ireland
Political partySinn Féin
Alma materGMIT
Websitefintanwarfield.com

Fintan Warfield (born 1992) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has served as a Senator for the Cultural and Educational Panel since April 2016.[1] As of 2017, he was the youngest senator in Ireland.[2]

Early life and education

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Warfield attended St Mac Dara's Community College.[3] He was a Gaelic footballer for St Jude's, a sport he has also played with Dublin Devils F.C., as well as being a supporter of St Patrick's Athletic. At 17, Warfield moved to Galway where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Film & Television from Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) in 2012. He moved back to Dublin upon graduation.[2][4]

Career

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Warfield was the Mayor of South Dublin County Council from 2014 to 2015, and is an openly gay LGBT activist.[5] He donated 10% of his mayoral salary to a women's refuge, LGBT group BeLonG To and Citywise (known for providing youths with educational support in Jobstown).[6]

Warfield was the first senator in the country to be elected in the 2016 Seanad elections, topping the poll on the Cultural and Educational Panel on 25 April 2016. He also won the most first preference votes of any candidate contesting the five vocational panel elections.[7]

Since his election to the Seanad, he has tabled two legislative bills: The Electoral (Amendment) (Voting at 16) Bill 2016, which aimed to lower the voting age to sixteen in local and European elections;[8] and the Gender Recognition (Amendment) Bill 2017, which aimed to give gender identity rights to non-binary and transgender young people.

He is the Sinn Féin Seanad spokesperson on youth affairs, LGBT rights and the arts.

On 31 March 2020, Warfield was re-elected to Seanad Éireann following the 2020 election to the upper house.[9]

In July 2020, Warfield made reports to the Garda Síochána following escalating online and offline homophobic harassment and abuse that started to extend to threats against members of his family. This came after he had made a speech in the Seanad in support of transgender rights, but also in the same time period as an extended bout of harassment against Green Party TD Roderic O'Gorman, who is also openly gay.[10][11]

Personal life

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A former full-time musician, he plays guitar and sings. He is a cousin of Derek Warfield and Brian Warfield (musicians with The Wolfe Tones) and performed with them, touring in the United States.[12] He is on the board of the Civic Theatre.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Fintan Warfield". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b Molloy, Ciaran (21 October 2017). "Sinn Féin's Own Boy Next Door". University Times. Archived from the original on 14 September 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  3. ^ Earley, Gavin (5 March 2009). "Gaelic: Mac Dara's conquer Clonkeen in thriller". Independent.ie. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Governance". The Civic. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  5. ^ "New mayor of South Dublin says he's proud to be 'an openly LGBT mayor'". TheJournal.ie. 6 June 2014. Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  6. ^ "This musician and LGBT activist is the first senator elected to the new Seanad". TheJournal.ie. 25 April 2016. Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  7. ^ "Seanad Election 2016 – Cultural and Educational Panel counts: Updates and Perspectives". adriankavanaghelections.org. 25 April 2016. Archived from the original on 16 April 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  8. ^ "Electoral (Amendment) (Voting at 16) Bill 2016". oireachtas.ie. 21 March 2018. Archived from the original on 6 May 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  9. ^ "Seanad general election 2020". www.oireachtas.ie. Oireachtas. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  10. ^ Coyne, Ellen (1 August 2020). "SF senator contacts gardaí over torrent of online abuse". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  11. ^ "SF senator forced to report online abuse to the gardaí following spate of homophobic messages". Irish Independent. 1 August 2020. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  12. ^ "Seanad election: FG, FF take two seats each on Cultural panel". The Irish Times. 25 April 2016.
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