Claire Kerrane | |
|---|---|
.png) Kerrane in 2021 | |
| Teachta Dála | |
| Assumed office February 2020 | |
| Constituency | Roscommon–Galway |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 April 1992 Frenchpark, County Roscommon, Ireland |
| Political party | Sinn Féin |
| Alma mater | NUI Galway |
Claire Kerrane (born 24 April 1992) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Roscommon–Galway constituency since the 2020 general election.[1]
She is a member of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle.[citation needed] She is the party's Spokesperson on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands.[2]
Kerrane is from the village of Tibohine in County Roscommon. She was raised on a farm. She has said there was no history of republicanism in her family: her mother is English and her paternal grandfather was a "staunch Fine Gael activist". She joined Sinn Féin during a dispute over plans to build an anaerobic digestion plant in her area, when she became involved in an action group against the project.[3]
Kerrane joined Ogra Sinn Féin at the age of 15 and was a leading Sinn Féin organiser at NUI Galway during her time as a university student there studying English, Sociology and Politics.[2][3] She was still a student at NUIG when she became a parliamentary assistant to Independent TD Luke 'Ming' Flanagan upon his election to the Dáil in the 2011 Irish general election.[2] Later she became a political adviser on social protection for Sinn Féin in Leinster House. Flanagan endorsed her as a candidate at the 2020 general election.[4]
In 2016 Kerrane qualified as a secondary school teacher.[3]