Lorraine Higgins Biography

Irish barrister and former politician (born 1979)

Lorraine Higgins (born 3 August 1979) is an Irish barrister, and a former Labour Party politician who represented the party in the 24th Seanad after being nominated by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny. From Galway, she is a graduate of NUI Galway (acquiring a B.A. from the university in 2001) and, later, the King's Inns. During her time there she was Labour Party Seanad spokesperson on Reform and Foreign Affairs.

Career

She ran as a candidate in the Galway East cons*uency at the 2011 general election. In May 2011, she was nominated by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny to the 24th Seanad.

Higgins was a candidate for the Labour Party in the Midlands–North-West cons*uency for the 2014 European Parliament election but failed to take a seat during one of the worst elections for the Party. She did, however, get the most Party votes in all the cons*uencies they contested.

In 2015, leading national publication, the Irish Times named her as one of the Top 5 People in Politics to Watch and one of the Top 50 People in Ireland to Watch.

She unsuccessfully contested the 2016 Irish general election for the Galway East cons*uency.

She was not selected for re-appointment to the 25th Seanad. Higgins complained about how "regrettable" it was that more women were not included in the parliamentary party. She was quoted as saying: "For me it was the last throw of the dice and I probably won't be involved in representative politics again".

In March 2017, Higgins became employed as Head of Public Affairs and Communications and as a board member with Retail Excellence. She was promoted to the position of CEO in July 2018.

She subsequently founded leading digital representative body, Digital Business Ireland, and Dublin-based consultancy company, Rockwood Public Affairs.

She was appointed to the position of Honorary Consul of the Slovak Republic in 2019.

In August 2020, she attended a golf party in County Galway which breached the COVID-19 guidelines.

2015 threats and har*ment

During the summer of 2015, a man named Stephen French of Walkinstown sent her messages involving violent and anti-Semitic content, saying that he "will watch her bleed" and that he is "going to blow her * Jew nose right off". In the aftermath of the incidents, French was spared from serving time in jail and given a suspended six-month sentence after his guilty plea to three charges of threatening Higgins and two charges of har*ing her.

References

External links

• Lorraine Higgins's page on the Labour Party website