Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (; born 14 March 1968) is a former Irish politician who has served as a Senator for the

Agricultural Panel The Agricultural Panel () is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (the legislature of Ireland). The Agricultural Panel elects eleven senators. Election Art ...

from 2011 to 2018. Ó Clochartaigh was born and raised in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

, England. His parents came from the

Connemara Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...

area of County Galway. He attended

NUI Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

, graduating with a Commerce degree. He worked in

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

theatre, and is a former manager and artistic director of An Taiḃḋearc. He also worked in television production as producer of ''

Fair City ''Fair City'' is an Irish television soap opera which has been broadcast on RTÉ One since 1989. Produced by the public service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), it first aired on Monday, 18 September 1989. It has won several awa ...

'' and ''

Ros na Rún () is an Irish soap opera produced for the Irish-language television channel TG4. The series is set in a fictional village called Ros Na Rún, located near to An Spidéal, and focuses on the domestic and professional lives of its residents. ...

'', and in community development projects. He first entered politics as a member of the Labour Party, unsuccessfully contesting the Connemara area of

Galway County Council Galway County Council ( ga, Comhairle Chontae na Gaillimhe) is the authority responsible for local government in County Galway, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for hous ...

at the 2004 local elections. He subsequently left Labour and joined Sinn Féin, and was the party's candidate at the 2009 local elections and for Dáil Éireann in the Galway West constituency at the 2011 general election, but was not elected. In April 2011, he was elected to

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

on the

and was re-elected in April 2016. In November 2017, he left

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

, citing "serious disciplinary issues" within the party.Christina Finn,
Sinn Féin senator quits, alleging 'serious disciplinary issues' in the party
',

TheJournal.ie ''TheJournal.ie'' is an internet publication in Ireland. It was a mixture of original and aggregated content, before moving to entirely original content. The website was founded in early 2010. It was edited by Jennifer O'Connell in 2010–2011, ...

30 November 2017. However Sinn Féin claim that Trevor left the party because "he was worried that a democratic vote of party members in the constituency would not select him to contest the election" and that just days before his leaving he had been advocating that two candidates instead of just one should be nominated at the Party's local selection convention.
Sinn Féin response to Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh resignation.
', SinnFéin.ie, 30 November 2017. He resigned from

on 5 February 2018, to take up a new role at the television station

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oclochartaigh, Trevor 1968 births Living people Alumni of the University of Galway Independent members of Seanad Éireann Irish television producers Members of the 24th Seanad Members of the 25th Seanad People from Huddersfield Politicians from County Galway Sinn Féin senators TG4 people