Mícheál Mac Donncha
Cllr Mícheál Mac Donncha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dublin City Councillor | |
| Assumed office 21 October 2011 | |
| Constituency | Donaghmede |
| Lord Mayor of Dublin | |
| In office 5 June 2017 – 6 June 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Brendan Carr |
| Succeeded by | Nial Ring |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Michael McConkey c. 1965 Donaghmede, Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Sinn Féin |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin |
Mícheál Mac Donncha (born Michael McConkey)[1] is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who served as the Lord Mayor of Dublin from 2017 to 2018.[2] He has been a Dublin City Councillor since 2014.[3]
He was co-opted onto Dublin City Council in 2011, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Killian Forde. He was elected in 2014 for the Beaumont-Donaghmede local electoral area.[4] He contested the 2016 general election as a Sinn Féin candidate in the Dublin Bay North constituency, one of two party candidates, his running mate Denise Mitchell being elected.
In April 2018, prior to attending a conference in Ramallah, on the status of the city of Jerusalem, Israel announced he would be prohibited from entering Israel to transit to occupied Palestine. Mac Donncha was able to enter Israel and travel to Ramallah. It was later discovered that Israeli officials had mistaken an image caption Ardmhéara Mícheál MacDonncha – as his full name. Ardmheára is the Irish for Lord Mayor.[5][6]
He was editor of An Phoblacht from 1990 to 1996.[3] From 1997 to 2014, he served as Parliamentary Assistant to Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and for much of that time was manager of the Sinn Féin Oireachtas team. He is the author of a centenary history of Sinn Féin 'A Century of Struggle' (2005).[citation needed]
Mac Donncha caused controversy in 2015 when he called the people who run Irish rugby West Brits (a derogatory term)[7] because the Irish Rugby team uses "Ireland's Call" when playing outside the country. [8]
Mac Donncha as a child actor played a young version of the actor Marty Feldman in the 1976 film The Last Remake of Beau Geste.[1]
References
- ^ a b Burns, John (15 April 2018). "Feldman had eyes on lord mayor as film star". The Times. Retrieved 27 April 2018 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
- ^ "Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–2020" (PDF). Dublin City Council. June 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
- ^ a b "This man is the new Lord Mayor of Dublin city". TheJournal.ie. 26 June 2017.
- ^ "Micheál MacDonncha". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
- ^ Hosford, Paul (11 April 2018). "Israel tried to ban Dublin's Lord Mayor - officials missed him because they thought his first name was 'Ardmheára'". TheJournal.ie.
- ^ "Dublin lord mayor beats Israel ban due to 'spelling error'". BBC News. 11 April 2018.
- ^ O'Connell, Hugh (21 September 2015). "Sinn Féin councillor defends calling people who run Irish rugby 'West Brits'". TheJournal.ie.
- ^ O'Connell, Hugh (23 September 2015). "Sinn Féin councillor's 'West Brit' comment "like an American calling someone an 'Uncle Tom'"". TheJournal.ie.