Louis O'Hara


Louis O'Hara is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála for the Galway East constituency since the 2024 general election.

Early life and education

The son of a solicitor, O'Hara is from Cashla, a townland in Athenry civil parish. O'Hara graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Public and Social Policy and a Master of Arts in Public Activism and Advocacy, both from the University of Galway.

Political career

O'Hara joined Sinn Féin at the age of 17, stating he was drawn in by the party's focus on representing young people.
O'Hara stood unsuccessfully at the 2019 local elections to Galway County Council. At the 2020 general election, aged 22 and still a student at University of Galway, O'Hara lost out to Anne Rabbitte of Fianna Fáil.
Following the election of Sinn Féin's Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy as TD for Cavan-Monaghan in February 2020 and his replacement as MEP by Chris MacManus of Sligo, O'Hara became constituency manager for MacManus, a role he held until the 2024 general election.
In 2020 O'Hara criticised Sinn Féin's Northern Ireland Finance Minister Conor Murphy after Murphy stated that Paul Quinn, who was murdered in 2007, was involved in smuggling and criminality.
O'Hara was elected at the 2024 local elections to Galway County Council for the Athenry–Oranmore area.
At the 2024 general election, O'Hara was elected Teachta Dála for the Galway East constituency, having won 14% of the first preference vote. In a party selection convention held shortly after the general election, Martin McNamara was selected to replace O'Hara on Galway County Council as a Sinn Féin councillor representing the Athenry-Oranmore local electoral area.

Political views

O'Hara has campaigned on the issues of housing, health, transport, and rural development, with a particular focus on dereliction in towns across County Galway, a reduction in rents and provision of affordable housing, reopening the Western Railway Corridor to connect Tuam and Athenry with Galway City as well as an increase and enhancement of primary healthcare services. O'Hara has also highlighted the destructive role that large corporations are playing in relation to the issue of climate change; His 2020 manifesto stated "If we are serious about tackling the climate crisis we must target those who are responsible for pollution". As the spokesperson for Galway East Sinn Féin in January 2021, O'Hara published an opinion piece in the Galway Advertiser newspaper where he outlined some of the rationale for holding a referendum to affect constitutional change on the issue of Irish unity. In the article he references research carried out by Dr Kurt Huebner of the University of British Columbia which forecast that "Irish Unity would deliver a €35.6 billion boost in GDP for the island in the first eight years after unification, resulting in more jobs, higher wages, and more money to spend on public services".