Election 2020: Claire Kerrane (Sinn Féin)

Claire Kerrane (27) from Tibohine in west Roscommon, ends a 97-year gap since the Sinn Féin party last held a Dáil seat in Roscommon, in 1923. Her election makes her only the second female deputy to represent Roscommon in Dáil Éireann and the first since 1981.

Kerrane has worked for Sinn Féin as a political adviser in Leinster House for the past four years. A qualified secondary school teacher, she is a graduate of NUI Galway. She has also worked as a parliamentary assistant to a former deputy, MEP Luke “Ming” Flanagan.

Kerrane, whose mother was a local primary school principal, was brought up on her family’s farm. In only her second electoral outing for the party, Kerrane increased her and her party’s vote by 10 per cent to take the final seat in the three-seat Roscommon-Galway constituency after first running for the party in the 2016 general election.