It can’t have been easy for a young Kathleen Funchion, 15 years ago, taking her seat on the (sadly, now-abolished) Kilkenny Borough Council. Since as far back as 1923, Sinn Fein had no council representative in Kilkenny. In the 1990s, it was Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour. In 1999, Sinn Fein did not run any candidate here. In 2003, they ran one in the city and one in South Kilkenny. Neither were successful. In 2009, Funchion polled 667 first preferences, and missed out on the council seat, eliminated on Count 8. She did, however, manage to win a seat on the 12-seat borough council. In a mostly-male environment among the larger party groupings, it was daunting — but help came from nearby. “It was definitely difficult,” she told the Kilkenny People this week. “But I genuinely remember people who were helpful and good to me. So, like the two Joes in particular (Fianna Fail’s Joe Reidy and Joe Malone). They were always helpful and very good, it was nice to have people willing to look out for you, and just colleagues. It has come a long way in one way, but there was nothing like those five years in the borough council; there was a range of so many things that came up. I really feel it was a forum where people worked.”With Gerry Adams Fast forward 15 years, and Funchion has ascended higher than virtually all of her contemporaries. Last week, she made history and won the fifth seat in the Ireland South consituency for the European Parliament. She is the first Kilkenny MEP since Liam Aylward, and only the second woman from here after Phil Prendergast, whose political career was largely Tipperary-based. It’s a significant achievement for the Callan-born Funchion, who could not herself have predicted such a career. Her election track record is one the speaks of persistence and tenacity rather than overnight success. She previously contested a European election in 2009, and was not successful. She fought for a Dail seat in 2007, 2011, and the 2015 by-election — and each time missed out. In
From Sinn Fein's lone Kilkenny councillor to Irish MEP: The rise of Kathleen Funchion
