Frank O'Rourke (politician)

Frank O'Rourke (born 15 May 1967) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kildare North constituency from 2016 to 2020.[1]

Frank O'Rourke
Teachta Dála
In office
February 2016 – February 2020
ConstituencyKildare North
Personal details
Born (1967-05-15) 15 May 1967
Sligo, Ireland
Political partyFianna Fáil
Alma materInstitute of Technology, Sligo

O'Rourke was born in Sligo in 1967. He is a native of County Leitrim, O'Rourke was first co-opted onto Kildare County Council in January 2011 to replace Paul Kelly. He retained his seat in the 2014 local elections, topping the poll in the Celbridge-Leixlip local electoral area, with 1,814 first preference votes.[2]

At the 2016 general election, he was elected as a Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare North to Dáil Éireann,[3] and was subsequently appointed as Fianna Fáil junior spokesperson on Financial Services, eGovernment and Procurement by party leader Micheál Martin.

O'Rourke lost his seat at the 2020 general election.[4] He blamed his defeat on a smear campaign against him, which involved both social media posts and leaflets,[5] and took legal proceedings against Facebook and Twitter seeking to identify the people involved.[6] The orders were granted in late 2020, and Twitter supplied the information sought.[7] However, Facebook claimed to be unable to retrieve the data.[7]

References
  1. "Frank O'Rourke". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  2. "Frank O'Rourke". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  3. "Election 2016: Frank O'Rourke". RTÉ News. 28 February 2016.
  4. "Kildare North constituency". The Irish Times. Dublin. ISSN 0791-5144. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  5. Clifford, Mick (19 November 2021). "DIRTY TRICKS, FILTHY LIES: Frank O'Rourke". The Mick Clifford Podcast. soundcloud.com.
  6. O’Faolain, Aodhan (27 November 2020). "Ex-TD seeks orders against Facebook and Twitter over allegedly defamatory posts Frank O'Rourke claims posts were untrue and designed to show he was unfit to serve Dáil". The Irish Times. Dublin. ISSN 0791-5144. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  7. "Facebook unable to find allegedly defamatory post about TD". The Irish Times. Dublin. 15 January 2021. ISSN 0791-5144. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
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