Malachy Steenson
Malachy Steenson is an Irish far-right politician who was elected to Dublin City Council for the local electoral area of North Inner City at the 2024 local elections. Steenson has been criminally convicted on three occasions, for stealing a car, possessing an illegal weapon, and giving a false statement to Gardaí. He runs a general law practice, specialising in family law.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Steenson was associated with numerous left-wing Irish Republican groups. However, by 2012, Steenson began to be associated with more rightward political positions. He was expelled sometime prior to 2012 from the Workers' Party for espousing a hardline pro-life stance on abortion. In the 2020s, Steenson became a high-profile figure in the Irish anti-immigration protests in Dublin.
Activism and political career
Early activism: republicanism, anti-abortion, drug-related activism
Steenson was previously active in a number of republican groups, including Republican Sinn Féin, 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, and was associated with the family of the murdered Real Irish Republican Army leader Alan Ryan.In 1992, Steenson campaigned for a "No" vote in the November 1992 abortion referendum. During the campaign, Steenson displayed graphic posters provided by the ultra-conservative Youth Defence organisation in a shop he owned.
Steenson has multiple criminal convictions, among them unlawful possession of an illegal weapon, giving a false address to Gardaí, and a conviction by the Special Criminal Court in the 1990s for unauthorised taking of a vehicle, in the course of his republican activities, for which he received a three-year suspended sentence. His home was subject to a raid by the Special Branch in 1994. He was denied a licence to drive a hackney cab in 1998 due to his convictions.
Although active in anti-drug movements during the decade, he opposed a march of concerned parents on Brendan ‘Fats’ Reilly, defending Reilly as an addict but not a dealer; Reilly was subsequently convicted of possession of £30,000 worth of heroin.
In 2006 he was one of the objectors to the re-opening of a pub on the site of the Stardust fire, in which his in-laws died.
Workers' Party
He stood for election for the far-left Workers' Party in the 2009 [Dublin Central by-election], served as a party spokesman in the 2010 budget protests, and ran as their candidate in Dublin Central in the 2011 general election, before being expelled for attending a pro-life rally after a series of disputes with party leadership. In 2024 a faction of the splintered Workers' Party publicly criticised his praise for Official IRA member Jim Flynn, stating Flynn's former comrades would not appreciate Steenson's attempt at associating himself with Flynn.Independent activism
Steenson participated in the 2010 Claiming Our Future citizen's forum where he called for a referendum on the country's economic policy, "so that government can not again construct state policy merely for the benefit of bankers and speculators". He was a prominent campaigner against the children's rights referendum, which was approved in 2012, which he characterised as an attack on parents. Steenson served as general secretary of the Association of Combined Residents Associations, which opposed water charges.Far-right activism and election as councillor
In a 2021 interview with the conservative student paper The Burkean, Steenson statedBeginning in 2022, Steenson began organising protests for far-right and anti-immigration causes. Steenson was a guest speaker at the Irish Freedom Party's annual conference in 2022. During his speaking time, Steenson criticised the Gardaí for supporting Gay Pride events and praised Donald Trump for appointing Supreme Court of [the United States|Supreme Court] judges who overturned Roe v Wade, which legislates for abortion in the United States.
Steenson was elected at the 2024 Dublin City Council election as an independent candidate with support from National Party candidates. During his candidacy, a man was arrested following a public order incident at Steenson's office. Steenson, who was not present at the time of the incident, described it as an "assassination attempt". The man subsequently pleaded guilty and was jailed for 13 months. Steenson also ran in the Dublin constituency for the European elections, where he received 7,128 first preference votes, and was eliminated from the field of 23 candidates on the 12th count.
Steenson ran for election in the Dublin Central constituency of the 2024 Irish general election as an Independent endorsed by the far-right National Alliance. He was eliminated on the sixth count. On 19 November 2025, Steenson announced his intention to contest the 2026 Dublin Central by-election.