Election 2020: Pádraig O’Sullivan (Fianna Fáil)
Cork North-Central – Elected on the 12th count
Pádraig O’Sullivan: Failure turned to success after he joined Fianna Fáil in 2012. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill / The Irish Times
Pádraig O’Sullivan (35) has retained his Dáil seat just three months after his byelection victory following his colleague Billy Kelleher’s election to the European Parliament.
Until his election he taught Irish and history at Coláiste Chraoibhín in Fermoy. A native of Little Island in east Cork, he lives in Glanmire with his wife Bernie and year-old son Páidí Og.
He first contested a general election in 2011 as an Independent under the New Vision banner in Cork North Central, but garnered just 1,020 votes, or 1.96 per cent of the poll.
Failure turned to success after he joined Fianna Fáil in 2012 and he was elected to Cork County Council for the Cobh Electoral Area in 2014 with 14.72 per cent of the vote. In 2019 he comfortably held his seat when his share of the vote increased to 21.84 per cent. This led to him being added to the Cork East ticket but he moved to Cork North-Central when the byelection arose.
