24 Facts About Kate O'Connell

Katherine O'Connell is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dala for the Dublin Bay South constituency from 2016 to 2020.

Kate O'Connell then worked as a hospital pre-registrar in the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, before returning to Ireland to practice as a locum-pharmacist.

Kate O'Connell was selected by Fine Gael for the 2016 general election to "recapture" their seat in Dublin Bay South from Lucinda Creighton, who had left the party in 2013 over her objection to the party's position on abortion and in 2015 founded Renua, an anti-abortion party.

The Irish Independent referred to these comments as Kate O'Connell "tearing strips off" of Creighton.

In November 2017 Kate O'Connell confronted Barry Walsh, a member of Fine Gael's executive council, with a dossier of tweets documenting that he repeatedly and frequently derogated women politicians, often calling them bitches, including fellow members of Fine Gael.

Kate O'Connell lost her seat at the 2020 general election, placing 5th in the 4-seat constituency.

On 7 May 2021, Kate O'Connell declared she would not seek to be the Fine Gael candidate for the 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election.

Kate O'Connell suggested she would not be able to win a party selection again due to her relationship with the Fine Gael leadership souring in the meantime, partially because of her vocal support of Simon Coveney over Leo Varadkar in the 2017 Fine Gael leadership election.

Kate O'Connell suggested many local Fine Gael branch members in Dublin South Bay regarded her as an outsider and a "parachute candidate" due to the fact she is originally from County Westmeath, and had turned against her over this.

In particular, a meeting between her and Simon Coveney in which Kate O'Connell's expectations were read as entitled was cited as hurting her relationships.

In October 2024, Kate O'Connell left Fine Gael to contest the next general election in Dublin Bay South as an independent candidate.

Kate O'Connell has been described by Irish political commentators and other politicians as one of the most outspoken liberals and progressives in Irish politics, whose views and rhetoric often bristle against her opponents, including more conservative members of her party before she became an independent.

The Phoenix has suggested that while Kate O'Connell's outspokenness was praised by Fine Gael members when directed at opponents, equally she has caused internal discontent whenever she turned her criticisms inward, leading to her alienation from certain factions in the party.

The view that Kate O'Connell was "alienating" was reiterated by an anonymous party source in July 2021.

In 2018 Kate O'Connell was on the forefront of Fine Gael's campaign to secure a Yes vote in that year's referendum on the repeal of the 8th amendment, the piece of the Irish constitution which forbade abortion.

In March 2020 Justine McCarthy, writing for The Times, accused Catholic conservative journalist John McGuirk of writing a hit piece on Kate O'Connell that lambasted her for her liberalism.

McCarthy opined that Irish politics needed more, not fewer politicians like Kate O'Connell, and that McGuirk was a hypocrite for not levelling his same criticisms at male members of Fine Gael.

Kate O'Connell has stated her family, the Newmans, have been "involved in Fine Gael since the 1960s", starting when Kate O'Connell's maternal grandfather ran for Fine Gael as a councillor.

Kate O'Connell's father Michael Newman was a Fine Gael councillor while Fine Gael minister Patrick Cooney was considered a family friend.

Kate O'Connell has stated that growing up, she and her family were greatly influenced by the progressive politics of Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald.

Kate O'Connell's brother-in-law Hugh O'Connell is a prominent political journalist and editor who has worked for several Irish publications.

In 2018 during debates in the Dail regarding abortion, Kate O'Connell disclosed personal details of a traumatic pregnancy she herself had experienced.

Kate O'Connell's child was born with organs outside of their body but survived the birth.

Kate O'Connell cites the difficult decisions made during that pregnancy as having greatly informed her views on abortion.